Page 3635 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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Access Canberra—online licence renewal
MS CODY: My question is to the Minister for Regulatory Services. Minister, how is Access Canberra making it easier to access government services, such as renewing your driver’s licence?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Ms Cody for her question. This government is indeed getting on with the job of making it easier to interact with government. Access Canberra has redesigned its service centres to more efficiently service those who visit in person, and Access Canberra continues to make more and more of its services available online.
A key priority that I have given to Access Canberra is to make doing business with the ACT government easier and simpler. Where possible, it is seeking to reduce red tape, including introducing digital solutions. Access Canberra now has nearly 300 of its services available online, with that number continuing to increase. It is also the creator of some of the government’s most popular online services, such as fix my street. Our most frequent user of the service submitted 353 requests in the last financial year. We then invited this particular user, with nine other “frequent flyers”, so to speak, to help test and shape the next iteration of fix my street, ensuring that it has everyday Canberrans at the centre of its design.
A key new online service that I was delighted to launch a few weeks ago is online driver’s licence applications. This means that many Canberrans no longer need to attend a service centre to renew their driver’s licence. We have also extended the maximum validity of licences so that they can be issued for up to 10 years as well as allowing people to re-use their photos as long as they were taken in the past 11 years. Unlike others in this place who I know are looking forward to a new photo, I look forward to keeping my current photo for as long as possible.
MS CODY: Minister, how does the new online drivers licence renewal system make it quicker and easier to renew your licence?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Ms Cody for her question. The new online drivers licence system is indeed designed to make life easier for Canberrans. The majority of those who need to renew their licence will be able to do so without having to set foot in an Access Canberra service centre. Those who have had a photo taken in the past 11 years and have a straightforward renewal can now do this relatively easily online. Access Canberra will then issue the person with a temporary licence that can be used for up to a month while the new card is posted out. The system will also provide Canberrans the option for either five or 10 years, depending on their preference.
I am happy to report to the Assembly that this is already a popular service, with 186 people renewing online in the first five days alone. There were even 44 people who were so keen to use the service that the system had to remind them that you can only renew your licence if the current one has less than a year’s validity remaining.
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