Code for Australia’s #GovWin Awards Are Back for 2020!
By: Esther Semo
Tags: Civictech, Updates, Digital Government, Govwin, Government

Let’s be honest. Every single person working in the public sector deserves an award this year — everyone’s worked hard under the strangest of circumstances. One of the things that we can forget about those working in government is that they’re doing work that ultimately has an impact on the rest of society; if things don’t work or take too long they can have huge repercussions on people in communities throughout the country — that’s a lot of pressure at the best of times!

The good news is that on the whole, local, state, and federal government teams rose to the occasion. This year, we’ve seen town halls hosted on Zoom; trials take place at home; and council elections be held off-site. So before we reveal the awards, it bears mentioning that as an organisation we have been absolutely floored by the capacity of teams within all levels of government to adapt, reflect, and ultimately increase their digital capability in 2020.

Now, let’s kick things off.

🤖 Leadership in ethical AI

Ed Santow, Australian Human Rights Commission

Ed has led the independent statutory body — established to protect and promote all aspects of human rights — for four years, but of late his focus has shifted to the intersection between technology and human rights. Ed is exploring the complex lines between concepts like innovation and privacy rights within the realm of AI. As Ed said recently on the InnovationAus podcast, “That’s the piece to the puzzle where I think we can do better: innovate in a way that is consistent with our values, that will be better, smarter, and give our citizens what they want.” Thank you for leading the charge!

👩‍🚒Kick ass person driving good tech in emergency management

Natalie Morton Hill, Manager ICT Applications & Development at NSW Rural Fire Service

If there’s two things we like, it’s sharing and scaling — and Natalie happens to rule at both. Not only did Natalie and her team create the incredibly useful Fires Near Me application during a season of unprecedented fire activity across NSW, but they also made the application both sharable and scalable for other jurisdictions. Talk about calm under fire!

🧓🏽 Coolest side hustle

Matiu Bush, General Manager Infection Prevention and Control at Department of Justice and Community Safety VIC & Founder of One Good Street

Where to begin! Matiu is the General Manager, Infection Prevention for the mandatory quarantine of returned travellers in Victoria. In 2020. No easy feat. But on top of all their amazing work in their regular role within the department, Matiu also found time to startup One Good Street — a social impact platform to encourage neighbour-initiated care for older residents at risk of social isolation and loneliness. Oh, and Matiu was a finalists for the Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers too. No big deal!

🤿 Most eager to dive in the deep end

Penelope Winslade, Hobsons Bay Council

Hobsons Bay City Council is the first metro council in Victoria to implement this new waste and recycling service that aims to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, and redirect it into local recycling streams. They then partnered with us to make an accompanying app used by thousands of Hobson Bay locals to give them the info they need to make the most of their new recycling system. Pene and her team are passionate about taking the lead and showing what local councils can do. Find out more about the project here.

🤪 Most likely to give wild ideas a go

Petrhyce Donovan and the Closing the Loop team, City of Canterbury Bankstown

For a local council, City of Canterbury Bankstown think big. From overseas information exchanges, using AI tech in local garbage pick-ups and truly opening themselves up to working in innovative, and sometimes uncomfortable ways, the City of Canterbury Bankstown team is serious about waste management and being a SmartCity. Oh, and we’re not the only ones who think they’re awesome! They recently won the SDC action award for sustainable development for use of machine learning to drive down waste contamination.

Edit: February 2021 —

Harvard University gave an award for the Closing the Loop on Waste project! A true testament to the fact that City of Canterbury Bankstown are incredibly committed to advancing the lives of their residents through digital technology. Keep the awards coming!

🥶 Most amount of grit

Elisa Bosel, Smart Service QLD

Our Smart Service Queensland Fellowship was in the works when COVID entered the scene. It’s easy to let priorities shift when a crisis comes up but the team at Smart Service Queensland have managed to juggle their many ad-hoc responsibilities that have arisen due to COVID, alongside supporting our awesome Fellows and keeping the Fellowship on track. Read more about their Fellowship here.

🏃‍♂️Most ahead the curve

Adam Fennessy, Public Sector Commission

After a few years off from working in the public sector, Adam returned in June of this year to serve as Victorian public sector commissioner. Having previously acted as secretary of DEWLP, Adam has always been ahead of the curve in terms of workplace practices within government, having been public about being one of the first men in the VPS’ senior executive team to take time off work and shift to part-time to look after his children. “ I think that with technology and support from leadership there’s no reason why we can’t be more flexible. A lot of it is just an attitude shift,” Adam told the Mandarin back in 2016. Having pushed for for flexible working arrangements at all levels for years (and pre-pandemic, no less) we’re thrilled that he’s now at the helm at PSC and in a position to implement these changes as part of their strategic priorities.

⚡Most able to make great things happen at lightning speed

Damon Rees + Melissa Clemmens, Service NSW

When it comes to ensuring people have what they need as soon as humanly (or digitally) possible, Damon and Melissa’s team spent 2020 kicking goals and smashing deadlines. Not only did they build excellent teams for unprecedented demands with miraculous speed, but they also rolled out a staggering number of new (and very necessary features) on the Service NSW app. We’re excited to see what the team have in store for next year because the bar has been set high!

🎒Cool human driving positive transformation for rural students

Michelle Michaels, Director, Education Support & Rural Initiatives, NSW Education

Having served at the Department of Education for over a decade, Michelle was able to identify a massive social risk for young people during a tough year. Michelle and her team developed a program which will “deliver improved access to digital teaching, learning aids and collaboration tools to rural and remote schools [and]close the gap between regional and metropolitan schools through better integration of digital into the curriculum and infrastructure.” We can’t wait to see how it turns out.

👂Most dedicated to embedding UX in government

Jane Cipants + The Legal Aid NSW Team

The folks at Legal Aid NSW proved to us throughout this year that they’re all about creating new roles in service design and data science and learning new ways of working from partners. The whole team got on board as we undertook a Fellowship with them this year wherein Fellows created prototypes for an online triaging tool. The team’s ability to take what they’d learnt and run with it wont be forgotten! Find out more about the Fellowship here.

💪🏽TEAM WIN: Champions of open source government

Digital, Design and Innovation Branch, The Department of Premier and Cabinet VIC

How awesome is this team? Let us count the ways… This year alone, the Digital, Design and Innovation Branch have produced two excellent resources that we can’t help but scream and shout about. Earlier in the year, Make your project open source — digital guide was released in a bid to build better products and services for Victoria by promoting open source.

Most recently, the branch launched their equally excellent Human-Centred Design playbook! It includes design plans, methods, outputs, case studies and many more useful tidbits and meaty things. We are so excited to see Human Centred Design being utilised in government to help public servants better engage citizens and inform policy.

Great work team!

🗣️NON-GOV WIN: Most likely to tell everyone they know about Code for Australia

Sean Hua, Civic Makers Program

Sean has been involved and actively engaged in the Code for Australia community for as long as any of us can remember! He’s also one of the founding members and organisers of our volunteer-led program Civic Makers wherein he comes up with amazing ideas and keeps the team moving forward. Sean’s ultimate superpower though, is connecting people within our community and beyond! Thanks to Sean’s kind words about Code for Australia, we’ve recruited Fellows, formed partnerships and met some of the best people we know. Biggest of thank yous to Sean!