GOAL: By 2020, four out of five Australians will choose to engage with the Government through the internet or other type of online service.

To advance our progress toward this goal, the Government will adopt a policy of Digital First in the design and delivery of government services. Under the Digital First policy agencies will:

• commit to using digital channels as their main form of service delivery,
• commit to the milestones in the Digital First roadmap, and
• implement end-to-end online processing for government services with a single authentication process by the end of 2017.

Engaging with government using digital means is generally more cost and time efficient. The Australian Communications Media Authority found in May 2012 that 82 per cent of Australians expect governments to deliver services online while only 6 per cent disagree.

See Chapter 11: Online government service delivery and Appendix A: Digital First Implementation and roadmap of the Advancing Australia as a Digital Economy: Update to the National Digital Economy Strategy for more information.