Granicus’ annual Digital Government Awards recognise public sector organisations and teams delivering measurable improvements in citizen engagement, service delivery and transparency
Granicus today announced the winners of its annual Digital Government Awards, recognising public sector organisations, citizen engagement, operational efficiency and public trust across Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s honourees are delivering tangible results, cutting case processing times from weeks to days, expanding resident participation from hundreds to thousands, and saving hundreds of staff weeks through smarter digital services. It is proof that practical, measurable digital transformation is happening at every level of government across Australia and New Zealand. Now in its 15th annual year, the program draws from thousands of public sector organisations that work with Granicus to deliver better outcomes for citizens and communities.
Ian Roberts, ANZ Managing Director at Granicus, said:
“Faster services, with processing times cut from weeks to days; clearer communications, with engagement reaching thousands more residents; and stronger trust, built through more open and inclusive decision‑making. Every year we see the ambition, creativity and commitment of public sector teams across Australia and New Zealand. This year’s winners show what is possible when digital is used with purpose. They are improving how citizens engage with services and building more transparent, responsive government. We are proud to recognise their achievements.”
The 2026 Digital Government Award winners, recognised across seven categories of excellence: Changemaker, Community Engagement, Operational Excellence, Service Delivery, Total Government Experience, Trust and Transparency, Website of the Year include:
Changemaker
Winner: Clarence Valley Council
Enabled residents to contribute thousands of verified koala sightings through a live, interactive mapping platform, generating high‑quality conservation data that feeds directly into NSW BioNet and informs state‑wide environmental planning.
Community Engagement
Winner: Sutherland Shire Council
Expanded participation in transport planning from traditional consultation to hyper‑local, map‑based engagement, reaching 64,000 residents on under $400 ad spend and converting 365 location‑specific insights into real changes to its 10‑Year Bike Plan.
Operational Excellence
Winner: Hunter’s Hill Council
Modernised fragmented digital systems into a single, secure platform, increasing online applications from under 4% to over 50%, reducing manual payments by 46%, and halving request turnaround times.
Service Delivery
Winner: Corangamite Shire Council
Transformed consultation into an always‑on digital participation service, with half of all engagement now driven by young people through tools like quick polls, idea boards and analytics‑driven feedback loops.
Total Government Experience
Winner: Hunter’s Hill Council
Unified website, forms, payments and engagement into one end‑to‑end digital experience, cutting online form completion times from up to 60 minutes to under five and reducing inbound phone enquiries by 33%.
Trust and Transparency
Winner: Voice of Queenslanders with Disability 2025 Project Team
Delivered transparent, annual reporting from more than 1,700 people with disability, using lived‑experience data and analytics to track policy outcomes across housing, health, employment and inclusion over three years.
Website of the Year
Winner: City of Parramatta
Re‑platformed and redesigned a 1,000‑page council website in eight months, driving a 79% increase in visits, tripling search usage, and making services easier to find for more than 260,000 residents.
The winners were selected for their demonstrable impact on citizen experience, organisational efficiency and public trust. They demonstrate how digital transformation can deliver practical benefits at scale across local and central government.
Notes
About Granicus:
Granicus is the global leader in customer experience technologies for government, supporting more than 7,000 public sector organisations worldwide. Through its Government Experience Cloud, Granicus helps governments deliver trusted, accessible and impactful digital services that strengthen engagement, improve operational efficiency and enhance outcomes for the people they serve. Now powering almost 30 billion digital interactions globally each year and connecting more than 500,000 government professionals with 300 million opt-in subscribers, Granicus is proud to serve as a critical strategic partner to governments as they work to deliver equitable and secure government experiences. Granicus empowers stronger relationships between government and constituents across the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. By simplifying interactions and communicating critical information, Granicus brings governments closer to the people they serve—driving meaningful change for communities around the globe.
