Overview
The Senate Public Information Office (SPIO) is led by the Clerk Assistant (Table) and the Director, SPIO, Matt Keele. The Director and the SPIO team work closely together to deliver services to the Senate, the public and the department. The Clerk Assistant (Table) is also responsible for strategic leadership in relation to the department's ICT dependencies, including liaison with the Department of Parliamentary Service's (DPS) Information Services Division.
SPIO produces and publishes an array of information resources so that people can understand and engage in the work of the Senate and its committees. This work is undertaken against the strategic goal of improving the department's approach to publishing and sharing information and being responsive to the evolving ways in which senators and the public expect to find and consume information.
SPIO also coordinates the department's involvement in forums and projects affecting the production and dissemination of Senate and departmental information resources.
The cost of the office for 2023–24 was $1.3m ($1.3m in 2022–23), with staffing levels maintained at an average of 8.1 full-time equivalent.
Information resources
SPIO supported each of the 59 sitting days in this reporting period by producing and publishing the following information resources relevant to the meetings of the Senate, and meeting corresponding performance results:
- The Week Ahead – 15 editions
- Dynamic Red (and ParlWork web-application) – 59 editions with an average of 125 updates a day
- Senate Daily Summary – 59 editions, and
- compilation and publication of statistics about the work of the Senate: StatsNet and Statistical Summary.
In this reporting period, the office's work to develop and publish information resources also included:
- producing video, print and web resources for the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO), including new online interactive games, and an update to both the content management system and the website hosting arrangements for ongoing security and stability
- producing videos relating to aspects of Senate processes and procedure, including the Sixty Seconds in the Senate series
- updating video training resources
- producing the department's corporate reporting and planning documents
- implementing new page designs across a range of Senate web pages, notably the redesign of the department's employment pages on the Parliament website
- management and maintenance of Navigate Senate Committees, a website providing a record of the work of Senate committees, and
- ongoing enhancements to Senate Connect (senators' intranet) and SENNET (departmental intranet) including the development of internal resources to expand departmental digital literacy skills.
SPIO also continued to manage the Senate's X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube accounts, while also expanding its social media presence to Instagram and Threads. During the reporting period the focus was on creating engaging and informative content for Instagram and YouTube, with external factors resulting in a strategic reduction in X engagement.
Projects and support
During the reporting period, SPIO continued to collaborate with DPS and the Department of the House of Representatives on a number of ICT projects to drive efficiencies and to create new resources. During this period 11 projects were completed with several of these being redevelopment and maintenance of existing applications for Windows 11 and cloud compatibility. Other significant projects completed include:
- Legislative Scrutiny Unit (LSU) document management system phase 1, completed July 2023
- Report Builder Online phase three – implementation of a digital workflow and integration with the Online Tabled Documents system, and redesign and implementation of webpage templates for reports to improve accessibility and user experience, completed January 2024, and
- Online Tabled Documents roll out – in partnership with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the online system to facilitate digital submission of reports and documents for presentation to Parliament was rolled out to executive departments, completed June 2024.
Other significant work during 2023–24 which is expected to be completed in the next reporting period is phase two of the LSU document management system, which will provide improved reporting and publishing functionality.
Performance outlook
In 2024–25, SPIO will continue its information resource production, and will support the newly established Digital Innovation Team with the management of projects, support programs and ICT liaison, in line with the department's strategic aims and to achieve its service delivery to senators and the public.
SPIO will support the transition of the department's intranets to SharePoint , and will continue to work towards improving the accessibility and user experience of its web content.
In addition to the ongoing work noted above, SPIO will work closely with the PEO to implement changes and enhancements identified following a website review, and will continue to support digital innovation throughout the department to mitigate the department's strategic risks in relation to ICT systems and resources and workforce capability.