My Address at the Launch of the NSW Spatial Digital Twin

It is fantastic to see the NSW Digital Twin launch today.

As the Minister for Customer Service, allow me to paint the bigger picture.

I am going to talk for a moment about connectivity. We often use “connectivity” as a bit of a buzzword – as though it is only our generation that have worked out its importance. However connectivity is a key part of our human story and a critical ingredient to innovation and progress.

Connectivity is traditionally seen through the prism of transportation: how do we move people en-masse from A to B.

All the great empires have built transportation networks. 2000 years ago, the Romans built roads. 200 years ago, the British built the railways. And now in 2020, the Berejiklian Government is building great transportation infrastructure right here in New South Wales, from the Sydney Metro Northwest to NorthConnex, WestConnex and the CBD Light Rail.

Transportation of people is vital. But in my opinion, it wasn't the mass transportation of people that resulted in progress: rather, what mattered was the transportation of ideas.

That’s why arguably the greatest transportation network we have ever seen was built 30 years ago, when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, propelling us into the information age.

Just like how the industrial age required roads and rail, the information age needs infrastructure: it needs digital infrastructure.

By digital infrastructure, I mean the tools and devices that move information and ideas quickly and easily.

Let me give you a few examples.

Late last year, we launched the Digital Driver’s Licence. This is key digital infrastructure that not only allows people to leave the plastic card at home, but is the underlying foundation for so much more reform.

Based on the Digital Driver’s Licence, we are digitising the Photo Card and occupational licenses. Then, subject to strong privacy and security safeguards, we are giving them the Marie Kondo treatment and eliminating the digital clutter of many different licences.

In the few months since we launched the Digital Driver’s Licence, more than 1.27 million people have opted in – that’s more than 22.9% of all drivers in NSW – with more than 96% positive feedback.

ePlanning is another great example of digital infrastructure transporting ideas and information quickly. We can see in real-time the development applications being made across New South Wales, saving customer time, reducing the paperwork burden on councils, and allowing government to be smarter planners.

The NSW Spatial Digital Twin is a critical part of this digital infrastructure. The Digital Twin is about understanding the present and modelling our future - in ways we have never been able to do before.

Our real challenge is this: how can we shape tomorrow, when we can't even measure today?

When it comes to shaping tomorrow, we often rely on fragmented, time delayed, some would say, stale data. In our federated system, we have hundreds of councils, territories, states and the Commonwealth Government. None of them seamlessly interconnected, let alone in real time.

Given the importance of data in the information age, when it comes to planning for our future, sometimes it feels like we are still in medieval times. Forget surgery with a scalpel and diagnostics, it’s more like hacksaw and bandage.

Whereas as we begin to have this technology, we can be laser-like in our modelling. This type of precision requires a digital twin.

The Digital Twin opens up new frontiers for the NSW economy.

If data is truly the new oil, governments have an opportunity to create new wells. Digital Twin is a great example of a data well. It is open source so other people can use it, gain insights from it, and ultimately build on it.

Imagine if the Internet was an innovation closed to a small number of government and academic players – its potential would never had been realised. Like the internet, the NSW Digital Twin has been opened up for everyone - not just government.

First of all, we can generate new wealth from data: new businesses and entire new industries will be built from the increasing amount of open spatial data made available.

Secondly, this drives efficiency in the existing markets. Lendlease tell me the use of a digital twin drives 20% efficiency in their processes. And opening up these markets drives further efficiency.

This is bigger than a product. It’s micro-economic reform. It’s infrastructure for the future.

And there is no better place to start the Digital Twin than in Western Sydney. Western Sydney is 10% of the state but much higher percentage of the state’s population and built infrastructure.

The area covered by the Smart Western City Deal is 12 times as large as Singapore.

In the next 20 years, Western Sydney’s population will grow over 1 million. That will be more than half of Sydney’s overall population growth. And 20 years is not that far away. To me, the Sydney Olympics feels like yesterday – so 20 years will feel just like tomorrow.

With this in mind - would like to thank the superhero team at Spatial Services headed by Bruce Thompson and Wayne Patterson. They are an extraordinarily tight knit team down there at Spatial Services and they are moving mountains - they are really at the forefront of this area.

Thank you to everyone across the NSW Government and beyond who have brought data to this first version of the Digital Twin. To everybody else – to quote a comic genius: don’t be a caveman. The NSW Spatial Digital Twin is open for business and we need you to make use of the data and become part of the ecosystem.