Australia lags behind other countries in digital maturity and is at significant risk of falling further behind without government commitment and investment to develop Australia into a truly digital economy, a new report released today has found.

The World Economic Forum has ranked Australia at 18 in terms of overall network readiness, well behind leaders Finland and Singapore.

The report by accounting giant Ernst & Young warned that Australia was at risk of falling behind these leading international jurisdictions unless it can provide the foundational level of access and connectivity required to support the rollout of progressive technologies and new digital government service models.

"This lower readiness ranking is due largely to the high average cost of accessing digital technology across the country," the report said.

It surveyed 1,500 Australians aged between 16 and 69 years, and 167 "digital opinion leaders" from private and public sectors.

"Four out of ten consumers and six out of ten digital opinion leaders believe the Australian digital economy is less advanced than other leading countries," it said.

In 2014 Australia ranked 7th globally for internet penetration, yet the affordability of digital access was ranked 49th - more expensive than the vast majority of developing economies.

The report attributes the poor performance to a combination of factors like slow internet speeds and lack of robust, digital infrastructure.

"As consumers and opinion leaders suspect, Australia's internet speeds are also well behind international leaders which is headed by South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan," it said.

Mediocre standards, poor delivery or e-commerce and a lack of innovation were also cited as reasons for Australia potentially falling behind.

Government digital sector ranked as worst performing

One of the worst rated digital experiences of consumers and opinion leaders was with the government digital sector, ranked as Australia's worst performing sector.

The authors acknowledged the substantial progress made in recent years by government service delivery agencies.

One noted positive was the Government's myGov portal, which provides access to Express Plus Job Seekers and Express plus Medicare.

The report said whilst development of the apps were a good example of using digital technology to improve interactions with government, user satisfaction was inconsistent.

"As a starting point, governments need to get the basics right, such as making web-based information easy to find, being responsive to online queries and making sure users can complete transactions or processes online," the report said.

"There is a significant opportunity to harness data and analytics to drive responsive policy and service design based on evidence and an ability to anticipate lifetime needed."

Australia is currently ranked seventh for the world's highest internet penetration.

"It is imperative that government leverages the country's significant advantage in terms of internet penetration and propensity for digital adoption through much better use of data, customer insight and innovative technology," the report said,

"Together, this will create a strong, connected capability advantage and improved social outcomes for the country."

The report also supported further NBN rollouts and said that both consumers and digital opinion leaders believe the NBN will help ensure Australia has a world class digital economy, but its slow rollout was a major concern.

The NBN is still not widely available, with only 11 per cent of the Australian population having it available at their home.

Loading...