Investment by sector
This section explores the projects underway across the Australian Government, broken down into 9 sectors.
From 2024 to 2026, most sectors experienced stability in the number of projects and in investment. However, the Tax and super, Government, and Healthcare and aged care sectors experienced increases in both number of projects and investment.
The Tax and super sector increased by 4 projects from 2024 to 2026, with a $738.3 million boost in investment over that time frame. The focus is on projects introducing new tax initiatives and modernisation of existing systems.
An additional 5 projects and $638.9 million investment in the Government sector from 2024 to 2026 reflect a heightened focus on cyber security improvements, and modernising legacy systems across government operations to strengthen national security and provide more accessible services to the public.
While the number of projects remain stable in the Healthcare and aged care sector, investment increased $1.4 billion from 2024 to 2026. This highlights the Australian Government’s priority in making healthcare more accessible through modernising systems and services. Another government priority is aged care, as evidenced through an increase in investment to implement the Aged Care Act 2024, and improve access to services for older Australians.
Agriculture and trade
10 Active projects, $1.0B investment
Agriculture and trade are central to Australia’s economic resilience. The Australian Government is investing $1.0 billion across 10 projects, to simplify import and export processes, in addition to supporting agricultural systems.
Producers are being supported to respond to extreme weather events with tools that help them understand future conditions and assess potential impacts on production. Knowledge and information systems are being developed to ensure insights from drought-related programs are accessible and widely adopted. This is crucial in providing the agriculture industry and government with future climate information.
Other projects are transforming border and biosecurity processes to streamline trade and improve risk management, while new models for cargo intervention are being trialled to enhance efficiency.
Export support is being scaled up through digital platforms that offer tailored guidance to businesses, helping them navigate global markets and trade agreements. Cyber security and infrastructure resilience are also being strengthened to ensure critical systems remain secure and sustainable.
Case studies
Education and employment
11 Active projects, $0.4B investment
The education and employment sector is crucial in supporting achievement, progress and prosperity in Australia. The Australian Government is investing $0.4 billion across 11 projects to improve service delivery, support workforce development, and enhance access to education and employment pathways. These projects aim to:
- support vulnerable groups, including First Nations prisoners and parents of young children, through personalised services to improve the transition into employment
- modernise vocational education regulation, ensuring more effective and responsive oversight of the vocational education and training (VET) sector
- enhance higher education systems by improving data quality, security and service delivery
- streamline the administration of education funding
- improve the identification of all primary and secondary school students in Australia, contributing to improved learning and educational outcomes.
Together, these projects are modernising Australia’s education and employment systems, improving access, efficiency and outcomes for students, job seekers and service providers.
Case Study
Government
14 Active projects, $1.3B investment
As the Australian Government delivers high-value digital projects for the public, significant investment in government processes and systems is also necessary to support and maintain this digital innovation. The Australian Government has invested a total of $1.3 billion across 14 projects with the goal of improving government operations through increasing cyber security processes and enhancing ICT infrastructure. These investments not only improve the operation of government services but ultimately improve the services to Australians, communities and businesses.
The modernisation of legacy systems is a major focus for the Australian Government. This is important across all Commonwealth agencies, as current or ageing systems are unable to support increased demand, maintain compliance and minimise vulnerabilities against cyber security attacks.
The digital projects across the Government sector range from supporting election services and the Census, to modernising existing systems and ICT infrastructure. These projects aim to:
- deliver necessary ICT upgrades to maintain reliability, functionality and scalability of services
- enhance cyber security across government to improve capability to defend and withstand cyber attacks
- ensure the integrity of collected data to support the effective development of policy and distribution of funds and services.
Case study
Healthcare and aged care
16 Active projects, $2.2B investment
The healthcare and aged care sector supports the health and wellbeing of all Australians, including the care of older people. The Australian Government has invested $2.2 billion across 16 projects, which are delivering new and improved health services, completing digital transformation of internal systems, and producing better online portals for Australians to access services. These projects are:
- enhancing systems to enable better data sharing between aged care and health services, supporting more integrated care for older Australians
- introducing new data capabilities to enable nationally consistent public health data and advanced analytics for timely decision-making
- developing a national ICT platform to streamline clinical trials and research processes, giving Australians improved access to research outcomes
- improving registration pathways for overseas-trained health professionals to streamline access to the health system
- improving the management of chronic wounds and diabetes by providing education and training for healthcare professionals and fully subsidised wound consumable products to eligible older Australians with chronic wounds.
Together, these projects are helping to modernise Australia’s health infrastructure, improve care quality, strengthen public health capabilities, and ensure the system can meet current and future needs.
Case study
Industry, infrastructure and business
11 Active projects, $0.8B investment
Investment in the industry, infrastructure and business sector supports Australia’s flourishing economy. The Australian Government is investing in domestic productivity through $0.8 billion across 11 projects. These projects are:
- improving transparency of Australian Government procurement activities through a dedicated supplier portal and improved reporting capabilities
- giving Australians increased transparency of large businesses’ payment performance towards their small business suppliers
- delivering necessary ICT upgrades to maintain reliability, functionality and scalability of services
- improving existing business registers critical to supporting the Australian economy
- supporting small and medium enterprises by ensuring continued access to secure, up-to-date tools and information.
Case study
Resources and the environment
13 Active projects, $0.7B investment
The Australian Government is investing $0.7 billion across 13 projects to protect, restore and sustain Australia’s diverse environment, in addition to managing the country’s natural resources. This includes projects in priority areas of climate change and achieving net zero, and ensuring affordable and reliable energy for Australians.
These projects aim to:
- regulate the energy market, by improving energy models to understand supply and demand, developing an online energy price comparison service for Australian consumers, and improving accessibility of retail energy product data for energy consumers
- improve ICT infrastructure needed to successfully capture greenhouse gas emissions data nationally and particularly in the agriculture/land sector, which is critical to Australia’s climate action plan
- implement the government’s commitment to safeguard and future-proof the Murray-Darling Basin
- restore, protect and manage Australia’s natural assets, by establishing a national Environmental Protection Agency, to improve compliance and enforcement of environmental matters.
Safety of Australians
12 Active projects, $1.8B investment
The Australian Government is strengthening law enforcement and online safety through targeted digital investments across multiple agencies. The government is investing $1.8 billion across 12 projects, which are focusing on:
- supporting identity protection to stop stolen identity credentials from being used to verify identity
- strengthening fraud detection across disability support systems, with new technologies making it easier to prevent misuse and protect vulnerable Australians
- enhancing law enforcement capabilities through national firearms tracking systems, improved access to criminal intelligence, and secure digital platforms for managing court materials
- modernising border security through new applications that support cargo examination and threat detection, including targeted efforts to address illicit tobacco and vaping
- implementing measures to prevent impersonation in SMS (text) communications and protecting Australians from scams.
Case studies
Social services
7 Active projects, $0.6B investment
The Social services sector is important for supporting the economic and social wellbeing of individuals, families and vulnerable members of Australian communities. With an investment of $0.6 billion across 7 projects, the Australian Government aims to streamline systems to ensure services remain efficient and accessible.
Significant reforms are underway to improve support for people with disability. This includes integrating de-identified data from Australian, state and territory governments to enhance understanding of the lived experiences and outcomes of people with disability across the country. Technology upgrades are also enabling more tailored and accessible employment services for people with disability.
Digital transformation efforts are enhancing the delivery of services to veterans. This includes improving claims administration and migrating legacy systems to secure, modern platforms, to assist veterans and their families access simple and seamless support services that fulfill their needs.
Investment in identity verification and fraud detection also continues, strengthening the security and usability of the platforms that Australians use to access government services.
Tax and super
9 Active projects, $1.0B investment
An efficient tax and superannuation system is essential for reducing economic costs and funding vital government services. The Australian Government is investing $1.0 billion across 9 projects in this sector.
Key projects are addressing the systemic issue of unpaid and underpaid superannuation by enhancing data matching capabilities for near real-time oversight. Digital investments are supporting Australia’s commitment to global tax transparency and fairness, including the implementation of international frameworks to combat multinational tax avoidance. These efforts are underpinned by upgrades to ICT and data systems, ensuring robust administration and ongoing compliance support.
Cyber security is being strengthened through targeted programs that improve agency maturity and understanding to deliver fit-for-purpose protection across digital ecosystems. Fraud prevention capabilities are being enhanced to detect and respond to financial crime within the tax and superannuation systems.
Further projects are modernising tax administration processes, reducing compliance burdens, and improving accessibility for trustees and tax agents.
New systems are also being developed to support the delivery of targeted tax incentives aligned with Australia’s renewable energy and critical minerals strategies.