Granicus announces seven Digital Government Award winners delivering measurable impact for citizens across Australia and New Zealand
Granicus’ annual Digital Government Awards recognise public sector organisations and teams delivering measurable improvements in citizen engagement, service delivery and transparency
SYDNEY, Australia – 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 sixteenth 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.
“It’s not just about gaining scientific data – it’s also about community storytelling and participation, which is a key part of Clarence Conversations. It has brought the community together to protect a vital koala population and its habitat. This work connects to wider koala conservation efforts across NSW, where the species is listed as endangered. Projects like this help build place-based solutions, rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. It has had an impact by increasing local awareness and participation in conservation, leading to better monitoring and protection of koalas in the region.” — Reece Luxton, Coordinator Natural Resource Management & Projects, Clarence Valley Council
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.
“Our 10 Year Bike Plan is all about making cycling safer and more convenient for everyone in our community, ultimately creating a more liveable, sustainable Sutherland Shire. By using the Granicus Places tool, residents were empowered to actively shape transport planning—sharing local knowledge that directly influence routes, strengthened trust, and set a new benchmark for inclusive, transparent digital consultation.” — Stephanie Quine, Community Engagement Advisor, Sutherland Shire Council
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.
“This initiative was important as it enabled Council to deliver a consistent, secure, and customer centred digital experience while modernising and streamlining operations across Council. The initiative delivered faster, more accessible digital services for residents and measurable improvements in efficiency, staff capability, and turnaround times through the automation of manual processes.” — Jade Reed, Manager Digital and Customer Information, Hunter’s Hill Council
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.
“Conversations Corangamite, powered by Granicus Sentiment and Feedback, has completely changed how we listen to and talk with our community – it’s taken us from one‑way updates to real, ongoing conversations people actually want to be part of. We’ve already seen stronger participation, especially from younger residents, and it’s helped build trust and confidence that community voices are genuinely shaping local decisions.” — Sarah Johnson, Communications Coordinator, Corangamite Shire Council
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%.
“I’d like to thank Granicus for this wonderful acknowledgment of our dedicated team who have worked hard to make Council’s website an accessible and easy to use tool for our Hunters Hill residents and community. This achievement is a testament to what we can accomplish when we work together, and I’m proud to have such a talented and innovative group representing our organisation and leading the way in our industry.” — Nick Tobin, General Manager, Hunter’s Hill Council
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.
“The Voice of Queenslanders with Disability gives people with disability a genuine seat at the table not just as participants, but as part of the research team driving the work. Over three years and more than 1,700 people engaged, this research and engagement is changing how government listens and ensuring that community voices translate into real policy change.” — Dr Kelsey Chapman, Research Fellow and Project Lead, Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability, Griffith University
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 City of Parramatta website migration was a critical deliverable in the broader Customer Transformation Plan. It was about ensuring our residents, businesses and visitors could easily connect with Council and find accurate, accessible and up to date information through a modern, secure digital platform. The migration has vastly improved user experience, accessibility and content management, resulting in clearer navigation, improved functionality, and increased engagement with the community.” — George Bounassif, A/CEO, City of Parramatta
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.
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.