Responsible Service of Alcohol, Responsible Service of Gambling and Recreational Fishing Fee first in NSW with driver's licences to follow in 2018.

NSW Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet

Australian licences will begin to go digital from mid-August and New South Wales is first off the rank, sources close to the Government have confirmed.

In November 2015, the Government said the implementation would begin with Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA), Responsible Service of Gambling (RSG) and Recreational Fishing Fee licences with drivers licences to be added in 2018.

The government is attempting to take the three “non critical licenses” and use them as proofs of concept for the eventual digitisation of all licences.

As a result, the licenses will be housed in a digital wallet, a smartphone app which will hold all of an individual's licences in one place, meaning each Government department will be able to use the same framework to launch respective licences.

At present there are a total of 84 NSW Government-authorised licences which will be digitised as part of the process which is expected run beyond 2018.

The initial rollout will be akin to an open beta to see if there are any teething problems before every driver’s licence holder in NSW has their credentials moved to a smartphone.

As certain licences are authorised by different Government agencies, the platform must be made to work with existing systems before it can be adopted across different departments - sources confirmed this process was still underway.

Speaking in November 2015, NSW Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, said the technology would allow citizens to display, apply, update and renew licences using a smartphone, with real time information also available.

“The digital licence will also have security safeguards built in, with authorities able to more easily verify the validity of these licences," he said.

The Government was contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.