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Two in five Australians believe local councils could improve their service delivery by investing in technology – and right now just 37% view their council as having a positive relationship with technology.
These insights come from new research commissioned by Datacom, drawing on a survey of more than 2000 Australian homeowners looking at people’s perceptions of and engagement with local government. This is the second year this research has been undertaken.
Survey respondents also said investing in technology would grow their trust in their local council (45%) and would make them more confident in their council (70%).
The research also identified key areas where Australians want to see improvement from their councils including more value (50%), faster processing of council applications (44%) and a simpler process for council applications (43%).
Interestingly, the research suggests there could be an easy fix for some of these issues: greater access to and awareness of existing services.
Nearly half of all survey respondents (49%) said they were unaware of the full range of services being offered by their council and another 14% were not sure.
Results of the research also show that council stakeholders and communities are feeling less heard than they were a year ago when the first survey was carried out – just 27% said they felt heard this year compared to 35% in 2023.
Satisfaction with council services varied across states with QLD having the highest level of satisfaction and those in VIC having the most work to do:
NSW | QLD | SA | VIC | WA |
51% | 57% | 52% | 44% | 52% |
“Councils have had to strike a tough balance to affordably maintain essential services. One area where value can be added is through technology that enables citizens to better engage and stay informed on areas that matter most to them,” says Datacom’s Managing Director SaaS Products, Peter Nelson.
“It’s no surprise to see the significantly positive impact that tech investment can have for councils. Advancing technologies like AI continue to be the hot topic – especially in terms of the kind of efficiency wins that the research has identified as being at the top of Australians’ wish lists.”
“We’re seeing a clear, year-on-year mandate in Australia for tech investment across all levels of government. At Datacom we’re addressing that demand by advancing solutions like Datascape, which is designed to help councils to engage and work more collaboratively with their communities, with AI-enabled innovation.”
The research shows there is work to be done across most digital channels and tools that councils are using – while satisfaction with council websites is solid at 51%, councils are struggling to engage with newer tools and channels including apps (10% satisfaction rating) and social media (16% satisfaction rating).
Datacom works with 117 councils across Australia providing technology solutions and services, including its cloud-based solution Datascape and mobile apps like Antenno for the public to report issues on-the-go (such as blocked drains or fallen trees), and for councils to proactively share helpful reminders like remembering to put out the rubbish on the right day.
Antenna, an independent consumer research agency on behalf of Datacom, conducted an online AntennaPoll survey of n=2000+ Australian ratepayers, split evenly (n=400 in each of the five mainland Australian states). The survey was conducted between 10th of June to 18th of July 2024. The survey data collection was national, and respondents were sourced using an accredited online research access panel. Data was weighted for representation against the 2021 Australian census.
