Every day, public servants across Australia and New Zealand are finding new ways to make government work better — simplifying processes, strengthening communication, and opening more doors for residents to participate. This year’s Digital Government Award honourees show what’s possible when the right people, processes, and technology come together. These aren’t abstract transformations, but real-world improvements that make daily work easier for staff and help residents get what they need without frustration.
We invite you to explore the stories behind this year’s winners to see how intentional improvements and sustainable innovation can create meaningful change — even within tight budgets, busy teams, and growing community expectations. Their work offers real examples, real lessons, and real inspiration for anyone striving to deliver better service in their own organisation.
For an individual, team, or project leading the charge for innovation.
This award recognizes an individual, team, or project that is solving problems in a unique way and delivering results that make a difference in a community or organisation. This category recognizes the leadership, vision, creativity, and dedication of a changemaking individual or team, or the impact of a project that is achieving critical success toward an organisation’s mission.
Clarence Valley Council transformed community conservation by turning residents into active contributors through a live, interactive koala‑sightings map utilizing Granicus’EngagementHQ solution. Their citizen‑science model produced high‑quality ecological data, strengthened stewardship, and inspired a second threatened‑species project.
For an organisation’s creative use of digital tools to inform and engage.
This award recognizes organisations that use innovative tools to expand community engagement and remove barriers to participation, finding creative ways to encourage community involvement, inform and engage underrepresented groups, and/or turn community input into useful insights, better decision making, and measurable impact.
Sutherland Shire Council set a new benchmark for inclusive engagement by using Granicus EngagementHQ’s Places tool to gather hyper‑local feedback on its 10‑Year Bike Plan. With under $400 in ad spend, the program reached 64,000 people and transformed community insight into actionable transport planning.
For organisational efforts to increase efficiency, save costs, retain employees, and support a modern workforce.
This award is for organisations serving as models in public sector efficiency. Whether it’s reducing customer service enquiries, streamlining labour-intensive processes, improving compliance, recovering revenue, or saving resources, these organisations are using technology to operate better, faster, and leaner.
Hunter’s Hill Council overcame resource constraints to modernize its entire digital environment, replacing fragmented systems with a unified Granicus platform. The transformation reduced manual workloads, strengthened security, and delivered faster, more reliable services for residents.
For organisations delivering better, more relevant government experiences for the public through the strategic use of digital tools and tactics.
This award recognises organisations leading a profound digital shift in how the public is served by transitioning from outdated tech or in-person interaction to modern digital technologies. These organisations use human-centred design and community engagement to develop the digital services people want with the exceptional user experience they expect.
Corangamite Shire Council transformed how residents participate in local decision‑making with Conversations Corangamite, a dedicated digital engagement service that makes community input easier, more accessible, and more meaningful. A standout success has been its youth-focused design, which created an ongoing “Youth Voices” space that now drives 50% of all platform engagement by making it simple and enjoyable for young people to contribute
For organisations using digital solutions to improve access, transparency, and trust in their communities.
This award recognises organisations using technology to increase visibility into the public service process and foster trust among constituents and stakeholders. This could include efforts to increase access to and engagement in public meetings and the decision-making process, providing better access to public records, being a good steward of taxpayer dollars, or improving accountability and compliance in areas of importance to the community.
The Voice of Queenslanders with Disability initiative —collaboration Griffith University, Queenslanders with Disability Network and the Queensland Government — delivers transparent, annual reporting on the real‑world experiences of people with disability across Queensland. Its citizen‑science model, including feedback based on lived experiences, creates authentic data that directly informs government policy and accountability.
For organisations improving the end-to-end experience for constituents.
This award recognises organisations that enhanced the user experience for their community by taking a holistic approach to improving government services. This could include moving key services online, providing greater transparency into requests and their status, and/or adopting a new and innovative approach to communicating services to residents. The key to success for these organisations is an integrated approach that improved multiple parts of the government experience in tandem.
Hunter’s Hill Council delivered an end‑to‑end digital overhaul that unified website, forms, payments, and engagement into one seamless platform. Residents now benefit from faster services, 24/7 access, and a dramatically improved user experience designed around their needs.
For organisations that enhanced their website to meet the needs of modern residents.
This award goes to organisations that used a data-driven approach to strengthen the relationship between their organisation and their constituents through a modern, mobile-friendly website with enhancements such as greater accessibility, better website navigation, improved content, or increased self-service to eliminate the need for phone calls or in-office visits.
City of Parramatta transformed its digital front door by rebuilding its website on Granicus OpenCities, migrating 1,000+ pages, rewriting top content, and adopting a mobile‑first, accessible design. The new site delivers faster search, clearer navigation, and a dramatically improved user experience for over 260,000 residents.
The awards are open to all Granicus customers in Australia and New Zealand. Submissions should focus on innovation in digital government through the use of Granicus solutions.
Organisations must nominate themselves (or their teams/projects/individuals) to ensure the submission is accurate.
There is no specific timeframe requirement for nominations. However, recent work (past 1-2 years) is preferred.
There is no fee to enter the Granicus Digital Government Awards.
Nominations are reviewed by a judging panel and evaluated based on the category’s criteria.
For additional questions about the awards, email awards@granicus.com.
Upon accepting the award, winners agree to Granicus’ use of the organization or individual’s name in promotional communications. Additionally, winners agree to share their successes with other government communicators in partnership with Granicus within a year of accepting the award. This may take the form of participating in a live event, speaking on a webinar, or interviewing for a video or written success story.
15TH ANNUAL AWARDS