Team Name

DSEC

Team Members

Project Description

GovChat – One Place to Ask, Find, and Trust Government Data

The Problem

Government data is a national asset, but finding the right dataset feels impossible. Information is spread across dozens of agency sites, locked behind confusing catalogues, and filled with jargon. Often, you do not even know what you do not know. Transparency exists, but it is not accessible.

The Solution: GovChat

GovChat is a single, simple way to discover, understand, and trust government datasets. Just type a question in plain English and instantly see the datasets that answer it, along with related datasets you might never have thought to look for.

Every answer is grounded in real sources, backed by:

1. Trust Checks – Confidence scores showing how reliable and complete the data is.

2. Audit Logs – A full step-by-step reasoning trail to ensure transparency.

3. Plain-English Summaries – Translating technical dataset titles into clear language.

4. Connected Insights – Interactive dataset graphs across ABS, ATO, Education, and beyond, making relationships visible at a glance.

Impact

1. For Policymakers and Researchers: Hours of searching become minutes. Every answer is source-backed and trustworthy.
   
2. For Citizens: Data is made accessible in plain English, not just for statisticians.
   
3. For Agencies: A shared framework for transparent data use across departments.
   

Tech Stack

1. Frontend: Next.js chatbot interface
   
2. Backend: Python API with ChromaDB semantic search
   
3. Data Sources: ABS, ATO, Education (with AIHW, DEWR, and councils coming next)
   
4. Trust and Transparency: Built-in scoring engine, audit logs, and explainability
   

What’s Next

We are scaling GovChat with:

1. Interactive dataset maps and dashboards

2. Expanded coverage across more agencies

3. Policy-ready fact cards designed for ministers, journalists, and communities

Challenge Justification

We chose to enter the following challenges because GovChat directly addresses their core aims:

1. Open Government / Transparency Challenge
   
   GovChat makes government data genuinely accessible and understandable for all Australians, turning transparency into something usable.

2. Data Accessibility Challenge
   
   Many datasets are scattered and technical. GovChat removes those barriers by providing plain-English summaries and a single search point.

3. AI for Good Challenge
   
   GovChat applies AI responsibly, with trust checks and audit trails to avoid "black box" risks, ensuring that results are both accurate and transparent.

4. Policy Innovation Challenge
   
   By surfacing connected datasets and providing policy-ready insights, GovChat supports evidence-based decision making for policymakers.

GovChat turns Australia's maze of government data into one clear, trustworthy conversation that is accessible to everyone.

Data Story

Australia’s government data is scattered across multiple agencies, making it difficult and time-consuming for policymakers, researchers, and citizens to find and use. GovChat solves this by creating a single point of access where users can ask natural-language questions. The platform retrieves relevant datasets, explains results in plain English, and provides confidence scores and audit trails for transparency and accountability. By surfacing related datasets, GovChat helps users see the bigger picture, for example, connecting university enrolments with migration and workforce participation data. This reduces time wasted hunting for datasets and builds trust in evidence-based decision making.