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Under the policy, agencies must make publicly available a statement outlining their approach to AI adoption as directed by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA).

This standard provides the DTA’s direction which agencies must follow. It establishes a consistent format and expectation for AI transparency statements in the Australian Government. Clear and consistent transparency statements build public trust and make it easier to understand and compare how government agencies adopt AI.

Agencies must provide the following information regarding their use of AI in their transparency statement:

• the intentions behind why the agency uses AI or is considering its adoption
• classification of AI use according to usage patterns and domains
• classification of use where the public may directly interact with, or be significantly impacted by, AI without a human intermediary or intervention
• measures to monitor the effectiveness of deployed AI systems, such as governance or processes
• compliance with applicable legislation and regulation
• efforts to identify and protect the public against negative impacts
• compliance with each requirement under the Policy for responsible use of AI in government
• when the statement was most recently updated.

Statements must use clear, plain language that is consistent with the Australian Government Style Manual and avoid technical jargon. They must also provide or direct to a public contact email for further enquiries.

Agencies must publish transparency statements on their public facing website. It’s recommended that a link to the statement is placed in a global menu, aligned to the approach often taken for privacy policies.

Transparency statements must be reviewed and updated at these junctures:

• at least once a year
• when making a significant change to the agency’s approach to AI
• when any new factor materially impacts the existing statement’s accuracy.

How to apply

Implementing the AI transparency statements

The policy provides a coordinated approach for the use of AI across the Australian Government. It builds public trust by supporting the Australian Public Service (APS) to engage with AI in a responsible way.

Transparency is critical to building public trust and is an important aim of the policy and broader APS Reform agenda. The public should have confidence that agencies monitor the effectiveness of deployed AI systems and have measures to protect against negative impacts.

AI transparency statements help agencies to meet these aims by providing a foundational level of transparency on their use of AI. They publicly disclose:

• how AI is used and managed by the agency
• a commitment to safe and responsible use
• compliance with the policy.

Agency responses to the required information are intended to provide a high-level overview of agency AI use and management in line with the policy intent. 

Agencies are encouraged to stocktake individual use cases to determine their classification of AI use. They are not required to list individual use cases or provide use case level detail. However, agencies may choose to provide detail beyond the requirements to publicly explain their approach to AI.

The agency’s accountable officials should provide the DTA with a link to the statement when it is published or updated by emailing ai@dta.gov.au

Identifying in- and out-of-scope AI systems

For agencies to determine the scope of their transparency statements, the policy applies the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) definition of AI:

An AI system is a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in their levels of autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment.

Questions about implementation

Accountable officials can contact the DTA with questions about implementing the transparency statements by emailing ai@dta.gov.au.

1. Executive Summary

In 2019, the Australian Public Services’ (APS) Secretaries Board agreed to prototype a whole-of-government Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) template, with the Department of Finance (Finance) leading prototype development. In 2021–22, the project moved to Services Australia. Services Australia was tasked with building and delivering a common corporate technology platform (GovERP) for use by APS entities. 

On 28 November 2023, the Finance Minister announced a new ERP approach for the APS that includes GovERP being repurposed for use by Services Australia (as Services Australia ERP), and any entities that choose to use it (see A new approach for back-office functions in the Australian Public Service). The Minister also announced an independent reuse assessment of GovERP to support Commonwealth entities to implement future cost effective ERP uplifts. This report outlines the outcomes of the independent Reuse Assessment. 

1.1 Summary of recommendations 

This Reuse Assessment has made 5 key observations relating to GovERP’s delivery to date, remaining work to complete, reusability and alternate designs or delivery pathways. These are summarised below. 

Insights suggest that for the government’s investment in GovERP to date: 

• GovERP’s functional capabilities cannot be reused by entities as they currently stand. It should be noted that for larger entities with complex ERP requirements and substantial in-house functional and technical digital skills, building on existing GovERP capabilities may be desirable to help minimise the effort and financial investment required to develop or update their ERP capabilities 
• system integration or user acceptance testing has not yet occurred for any of the functional capabilities identified, and
• a significant number of business process maps, designs, patterns, and related documentation have been identified that, if made available to other entities, could act as an accelerator for future ERP uplifts. 

Against these key observations, the Reuse Assessment has made 5 recommendations for next steps.

2. Background 

2.1 Assessment terms of reference 

To support Commonwealth entities to implement future cost effective ERP uplifts, the independent reuse assessment has focused on: 

• leveraging work already completed 
• drawing out lessons learned, and 
• uncovering opportunities for reuse of Service Australia’s ERP to support the new APS ERP approach. 

The Assessment’s terms of reference, as detailed at Appendix A, sought to: 

1. Evaluate and understand what has been delivered to date. 
2. Evaluate and understand what has been spent to date against what has been delivered. 
3. Evaluate and understand the suitability of delivered outputs for reuse across the Commonwealth. 
4. Contribute standard designs, patterns, and other related guidance to the Australian Government Architecture. 
5. Articulate recommendations and guidance for reuse including information that will support entities to plan future ERP uplifts. 
6. Advise on potential costs, risks, and associated benefits, to carry out any remaining work envisaged by Services Australia to complete GovERP. 
7. Advise on potential ongoing costs to entities from reusing GovERP, if reuse can be supported. 
8. Identify alternative designs and pathways that might provide more cost-effective options for any remaining work. 
9. Identify any existing ‘readymade’ deployment configurations deemed suitable to allow direct onboarding of entities. 

2.2 Assessment approach 

2.3 GovERP project history 

The Shared Services Program, led by Finance, commenced in 2014 with approval from the Secretaries Board. In 2019 the Secretaries Board agreed that Finance prototype GovERP, the enabling technology for the program. 

• The GovERP Program aimed to consolidate and standardise common transactional corporate APS processes and services aiming for cost-effectiveness, scalability, and advancing the one-APS vision, all while enhancing Australia’s digital capability. 
• The platform was to replace a wide range of disparate systems across government (including the ERP systems then in use by shared services hubs at Finance, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Home Affairs, Services Australia, and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources) with a single across-government platform. 

On 14 September 2020, the Shared Services Steering Committee defined a suite of functional (and other) capabilities as the minimum necessary for a whole-of-government GovERP model. These 54 functional capabilities were grouped by ‘value streams’, notably: human resources (Hire to Retire), procurement (Procurement to Pay), financial (Budget to Report and Revenue to Bank), as well as travel and expense management. These are outlined at Appendix F. 

2.3.1 GovERP in Services Australia 

In July 2021, the GovERP Program moved to Services Australia. Services Australia’s GovERP program was intended to comprise a SAP based core (see Reference 1) with a series of software solutions able to be added to provide specific functionality. 

The previously defined suite of 54 functional capabilities, considered to be the minimum necessary for a whole-of-government GovERP model, was revised in consultation between Services Australia and its nominated client for initial onboarding (AGD). This revised minimum viable product (MVP), also outlined at Appendix F, reflected a more targeted suite of 39 ERP functional capabilities. 

For the purposes of this report, references to MVP1.0 reflect the original Shared Services Steering Committee-defined scope of 54 functional capabilities for whole-of-government purposes, and MVP1.1 refers to the revised scope of 39 functional capabilities intended for initial onboarding of AGD. 

2.3.2 New APS ERP approach

In November 2023, the Minister for Finance announced the scaling back of the broader GovERP program, concurrently introducing an updated program titled “A new approach for back-office functions in the Australian Public Service.” (see A new approach for back-office functions in the Australian Public Service.)

The new APS ERP approach replaces the Shared Services Transformation Program and sets the strategic direction for how the APS will manage its ERP corporate systems, underpinned by the principles of choice, market competition, and affordability. 

The new APS ERP approach reflects a move away from highly aggregated demand for shared services (premised on a whole-of-government ERP system) to more distributed models with some areas to be a hub or provider, but in most cases letting entities directly use ERP capabilities themselves. 

On 5 January 2024, AGD advised it no longer intended to proceed with onboarding to GovERP (Services Australia 2024). 

In February 2024, the related GovERP governance committees were dissolved (Services Australia Chief Information Officer 2024). GovERP was also renamed to SA ERP to reflect the APS ERP approach no longer pursuing a wholeof-government build. It was intended that GovERP designs be repurposed for use by Services Australia, and any entities who choose to use it, pending the outcomes of this reusability assessment (see A new approach for back-office functions in the Australian Public Service). In subsequent correspondence of 26 April 2024, the Hon Bill Shorten MP advised, Services Australia has refocussed efforts to determine the functional requirements of the ERP solution for Services Australia”…and “[t]he remaining [GovERP] budget [of $21.8m] will be used to continue sustainment of the current ERP solution” (see Reference 4).

The Panel recognises that multiple APS entities will likely be coming forward soon for ERP uplifts as the need for well-functioning ERP capabilities across government has not abated. These uplifts reflect core underpinning capability of all government entities. As such, formal cross-APS governance structures are needed to ensure common approaches and limit customisations as much as possible. 

Guidance from senior executives, such as Secretaries Data and Digital Committee (SDDC), is particularly important in anticipation of removal of the government’s existing investment moratorium on ERPs.