Canberra's Duplicate Image Problem: The Key Decisions Ahead for Government Records

A quiet but costly problem has been building inside Canberra's government IT infrastructure for years: duplicate digital images — scanned documents, photographs, and file attachments stored multiple times across overlapping systems — are consuming significant server capacity and complicating public records management across both the ACT and federal public service. The question now is what happens next, and who makes the calls that matter.

The issue has gained urgency in mid-2026 as agencies face tightening budget conditions and increasing scrutiny of data governance. Duplicate image files are not a novelty in large organisations, but in a city where the federal public service employs roughly 100,000 workers within the ACT alone, the scale of digital record-keeping — and the duplication within it — is proportionally enormous. Every department scanning the same ministerial brief, every branch keeping its own copy of the same photograph, compounds the problem across dozens of agencies headquartered between Barton and Parkes.

Who Owns the Problem — and the Solution

The Australian National Archives, based on Queen Victoria Terrace in Parkes, sets the national standard for how Commonwealth records must be kept and disposed of. Its policies govern what can be deleted and what must be retained, meaning no agency can simply run a bulk-delete script on duplicate files without risking a records breach. That constraint is the first major decision point: before any cleanup can proceed, agencies need formal guidance on whether a duplicate image — an identical copy of a retained original — qualifies for authorised disposal under existing General Records Authority schedules.

The ACT government faces a parallel but distinct version of the same issue. The Territory Records Office, which administers the Territory Records Act 2002, oversees records management for ACT public service agencies including Health, Transport Canberra, and the Education Directorate. Agencies operating out of offices in Civic and Dickson have been urged in recent budget cycles to reduce unnecessary data storage, but the practical mechanism for identifying and removing duplicate images without compromising archival obligations has remained elusive.

The Australian National University's School of Computing, on Acton Peninsula, has done work relevant to automated image deduplication — a process using hash-matching and perceptual algorithms to identify identical or near-identical files. The technology itself is mature. The institutional and legal frameworks for deploying it inside government are not.

What the Next Six Months Look Like

Three decisions will shape how this plays out before the end of 2026. First, the Digital Transformation Agency — which coordinates whole-of-government ICT policy from its offices in Canberra's CBD — is expected to release updated cloud storage guidelines later this year. How explicitly those guidelines address duplicate data will determine whether agencies have policy cover to act or continue deferring the problem.

Second, the ACT's 2026-27 budget, handed down in June, allocated funding toward shared digital infrastructure for territory agencies, though the specific programs remain subject to implementation planning. Whether deduplication tools are bundled into that infrastructure upgrade is a decision for the Digital Services division inside the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate.

Third, individual agency chief information officers will need to commission proper audits before any remediation can begin. An audit typically takes three to six months for a mid-sized agency, meaning decisions made now about scope and methodology will determine whether anything substantive happens before the next financial year.

For public servants working in agencies from Russell to Tuggeranong, the practical upshot is straightforward: expect guidance documents, expect a likely pilot program in one or two agencies before any territory-wide or whole-of-government rollout, and expect the legal sign-off from records authorities to be the longest part of the process. The technology is ready. The governance is the hard part — and in Canberra, governance always takes longer than the engineers would like.