ACT Government's Duplicate Image Replacement Push: What Changed This Week

The ACT Government's digital services branch moved this week to enforce stricter controls on duplicate imagery used across official agency websites, with the Digital, Data and Technology Solutions directorate issuing updated guidance to departments on July 2 requiring all non-compliant image instances to be replaced or removed before July 18. The push follows a broader audit of public-sector digital content that began in March and identified widespread duplication across at least a dozen agency portals.

The timing matters. The federal government's own digital frameworks, which the ACT's public service often tracks closely, have been tightening standards around accessibility and content governance through 2025 and into this year. For a city whose economy runs on public administration — roughly a third of the ACT workforce is employed directly or indirectly by government — the way agencies present themselves online has real reputational and legal weight. Duplicate or unlicensed imagery can expose agencies to copyright liability and undermines the territory's stated accessibility commitments under the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1.

Which Agencies Are Affected

The audit flagged portals managed by Access Canberra, the ACT Health Directorate, and Transport Canberra as having the highest concentrations of duplicated stock images — in some cases the same photograph appearing on more than eight separate pages with different alt-text descriptions or no description at all. Transport Canberra's light rail information pages, which have been updated repeatedly as Stage 2B planning documents have been released and revised, were specifically cited in the directorate's internal guidance document as a case study of content sprawl.

The Australian National University's digital communications team, which liaises with ACT Government on shared infrastructure projects through the University of Canberra's collaborative digital lab on Kirinari Street in Bruce, has also been working through a parallel image audit since May. That process, while not bound by the July 18 deadline, is expected to conclude before the start of semester two on July 21. Both institutions draw on the same pool of licensed image suppliers, making coordinated replacement more practical than working in isolation.

In the Gungahlin Town Centre, the local service hub on Hibberson Street that handles Access Canberra counters for licences, registrations and community services replaced imagery across its digital kiosk interfaces in late June as part of a pilot program. Staff there processed more than 1,200 in-person transactions in the final week of June alone, according to figures circulated internally, meaning the kiosk interfaces get high daily traffic — making accurate, clearly sourced imagery more than an aesthetic concern.

What the Replacement Process Involves

Replacing duplicate images is not simply a matter of swapping one file for another. Each substitution requires updating metadata, re-checking alt-text for accessibility compliance, and in some cases renegotiating licensing terms with the original supplier. The ACT's preferred image licensing arrangements run through a whole-of-government contract that was last renegotiated in 2024. Content managers at smaller directorates, particularly those without dedicated digital staff, have described the process as time-intensive, though the directorate has made additional support available through its GovTeams channels this week.

The July 18 deadline applies to all externally facing pages — that is, anything accessible to the public without a login. Internal intranet content falls under a separate review schedule running through September. Agencies that miss the deadline face having non-compliant pages flagged in the territory's quarterly digital audit report, which is tabled in the Legislative Assembly and is publicly searchable.

For public servants and Canberrans who interact regularly with ACT Government digital services — whether booking appointments through the Access Canberra portal, checking Transport Canberra timetables, or navigating ACT Health's service directory — the practical upshot should be cleaner, better-described pages by the end of July. Agencies have been advised to test replacements on mobile interfaces specifically, given that more than 60 percent of traffic to ACT Government websites now arrives via smartphone. Anyone who spots a broken image or missing description in the coming fortnight can report it directly through the Access Canberra feedback form at accesscanberra.act.gov.au.