Digital Readiness Index 2022: Australia must accelerate

Australia has dropped its global digital readiness rank, according to the latest study from Cisco. The Australian Digital Readiness Index 2022 captures the opportunities that digital capabilities and investments create in a country, state or territory, and is directly tied to other measures of a country’s performance.

In addition, a national digital divide continues to exist in Australia and there is not an equitable realisation of the benefits of digitisation, according to the newly released index.

Australia’s rank has dropped to 16th place across 146 countries — it was previously ranked 12th in 2019. The local Australian index measures the states and territories against similar criteria and reveals shifts in digital readiness.

The Index is a holistic approach to measure across seven components:

• Basic Needs
• Human Capital
• Business and Government Investment
• Ease of Doing Business
• Start-up Environment
• Technology Adoption
• Technology Infrastructure

This is the third iteration of the report and the first since the global pandemic.

A nation digitally divided

The examination of digital readiness scores across each state and territory shows close groupings between them on many components, with one significant outlier.

• Australian Capital Territory retained its leading position as Australia’s most digitally ready state or territory, due to ranking 1st in Business & Government Investment and Human Capital.
• New South Wales moved ahead considerably gaining ground on the nation’s capital, thanks to scores in Basic Needs and Start-up Environment, the latter reflecting the state government’s commitment to growing its start-up ecosystem.
• Victoria maintained its 3rd placed ranking and now leads the nation in Technology Adoption, where it rose from 4th place thanks to a 10-percentage point increase in broadband services in operation and having the equal highest percentage of businesses with staff working from home.
• South Australia was most improved, jumping three positions to 4th due to the state’s improved score for Ease of Doing Business rising to 1st place nationally, while its score for Technology Adoption climbed from 7th to 4th.
• Western Australia dropped from 4th to 5th, due partly to a fall in score for Business & Government Investment.
• Queensland retained 6th place, due to placing 3rd for Human Capital, where it rose from 5th position due to a 4.4 percentage point gain in labour force participation.
• Tasmania dropped from 5th place to 7th, primarily due to a decline in its score for Ease of Doing Business. Although the state retains the highest business survival rate in the country, the massive drop in business confidence dragged its score down.
• Northern Territory was ranked in the lowest category (Amplify Low), reflecting recognised social and economic challenges within the territory, and reveals the continued widening national digital divide.

Resilient, sustainable, equitable — our digital readiness opportunity

The Digital Readiness Index highlights the need for accelerated and continued investment. The report reveals that simply maintaining investment levels can still see a nation, state or territory overtaken by its peers.

“Digital readiness helps us to understand how different nations, states and territories are performing and measure their progress towards creating a more prosperous and digitally inclusive society. We can also understand the improvements that are needed to maintain or boost performance,” said Ben Dawson, Vice President, Cisco Australia and New Zealand.

“Australia continues to be amongst the highest-ranked digitally ready nations but cannot afford to stand still. Maintaining existing investment levels puts us at risk of falling behind other countries and increasing the national digital divide.

“As digitisation continues to accelerate, the report highlights the continued need for Australia to focus and invest across all the digital readiness components to capture the opportunities of a resilient, sustainable and equitable society.

“While it is always difficult to predict the future, one forecast that can be made with certainty is that the digital skills and infrastructure required by Australia today will be insufficient for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” Dawson said.

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