WA.gov.au - Bringing the Western Australian government to you

WA.gov.au aims to reduce the number of government websites. It provides a standardised user experience that improves usability and accessibility, making it faster and easier for everyone in the community to transact with government services.

Decisions in the management of WA.gov.au are made on the basis of what will deliver the best outcomes to the public of Western Australia.

Reduced cost

Agencies who move their content onto WA.gov.au should receive a higher level of service at a lower cost compared to their current arrangements. WA.gov.au lowers costs to agencies in delivering their web presence through the use of common digital platforms, consolidated contracts and a standardised design.

Existing WA.gov.au functionality is freely accessibly to all agencies. Any gaps in functionality between agency needs and the current platform are identified during the onboarding process, and development of new functionality to fill these gaps is funded by the onboarding agency. New functionality is then shared across the platform to the benefit of all agencies.

Any savings made by agencies who transition onto WA.gov.au can be reinvested at their discretion.

Lower operational risks

Central governance of technology and security with data hosted on common platforms reduces the risk to agencies relating to security issues and legacy technologies (including duplicated and out of date applications, under-used or unsupported technologies).

Better access to skilled ICT professionals

Consolidating agencies' operations on standardised, common government platforms means they have access to an increasing pool of ICT professionals knowledgeable of these platforms and how they are deployed for the Western Australian government.

DGov has been provided base level funding to operate WA.gov.au and help agencies move their content onto the website. Agencies are responsible for funding the migration of their content, however access to the platform and base level services are provided under existing DGov resources.

The base level range of services provided by DGov include:

• Migration support
  • Agency on-boarding support
  • Capability requirements review
  • Vendor procurement support
  • Code management and deployment
• Platform support and maintenance
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) base infrastructure, data and storage charges
  • Drupal Content Management System platform management
  • Patching, backups and disaster recovery
  • Office hours support desk
  • Training and content governance

Maintenance and support costs of the platform are met by DGov under a Memorandum of Understanding. A working group has been established to govern the ongoing operation of the platform.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been established to promote a strategic and cooperative relationship between the Office of Digital Government (DGov, who manage and operate WA.gov.au) and client agencies (migrating to the WA.gov.au platform).

The MOU establishes expectations on the services, service levels and costs between DGov and agencies migrating onto WA.gov.au.

The MOU was created in consultation with the Departments of the Premier and Cabinet, Finance, Public Sector Commission, Justice and Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation. 

It has been approved by the Directors General ICT Council. 

A working group has been established to help DGov govern WA.gov.au. It met for the first time in April 2019.

Members of the working group currently include representatives from:

• Department of the Premier and Cabinet
• Department of Finance
• Public Sector Commission
• Department of Treasury
• Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation
• Department of Justice
• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
• Department of Communities
• Department of Water and Environmental Regulation

Agencies moving their content onto WA.gov.au are able to nominate a representative to sit on the working group.