Team Name:
Im Marz
Team Members:
Im Marz
Find services. Claim benefits. Stay safe online.
Coala is a powerful AI-powered assistant built to help Australians navigate through complex government processes, protects against scams, and connects over 300+ open datasets to give personalised, plain-English answers — all backed by official Australian sources.
Unlike generic AI tools, Coala is trained on local systems, meaning:
- ✅ Accurate guidance for Australian services
- ✅ Real-time scam detection and prevention powered by Scamwatch
- ✅ Step-by-step navigation of services like Medicare, Centrelink, and ATO
1. Connects 300+ Government Datasets (Navigating Australia’s Data Landscape)
2. Protects Australians from Scams (Digital Confidence)
3. Simplifies Government Services (Red Tape Navigator)
4. Builds Personal AI Buddies (Community AI Agents)
Australians aren’t all the same. Coala adapts:
Everyone gets their own AI “agent”, designed for their needs.
5. Digital Safety Reports and Training (AI for Gov Services)
After every session, Coala creates a downloadable PDF:
Live Demo: https://macishacked.github.io/govbuddy-aussie-assist
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/MaCisHacked/govbuddy-aussie-assist
VIC-specific data toggle (DataVic), Scam heatmap, ABS Data API enrichment, and explainers for common life events (student, job seeker, carer, retiree, etc.).
React • Vite • Tailwind • OpenAI API • ABS • Services Australia • Scamwatch
Coala isn’t just a prototype — it’s the future of digital government in Australia.
Coala: Turning confusion into clarity, and data into action.
🌏 The Problem
Australia has 300+ open government datasets scattered across portals, PDFs, and dashboards.
But for citizens:
Services are fragmented → Medicare, Centrelink, ATO, MyGov, housing, grants — all in different places
Scams are growing → Australians lost $3.1B in 2024 alone
Data is hard to understand → technical reports and raw CSVs aren’t built for everyday people
Australians are left guessing, confused, and vulnerable.
Coala uses AI + open data to give Australians simple, personalised answers in plain English.
Ask a question → “How do I claim my Medicare rebate?”
Coala searches verified datasets + government APIs
Returns step-by-step instructions with hyperlinked official sources
No jargon. No PDFs. No guesswork.
Dataset Purpose Challenge Coverage
ABS Census 2021 Demographics, income, digital divide Digital Empowerment + VIC
Services Australia API Medicare, Centrelink, grants data AI for Gov Services + Data Navigation
ATO Open Tax Data Tax offsets, refunds, payment patterns Tax AI
Scamwatch API Real-time scam reports + fraud types Digital Confidence
ACMA SMS & URL Blocklist Detects phishing URLs, fake domains Digital Confidence
eSafety Feeds Online harm & safety alerts Digital Confidence
DataVic Housing & Planning Affordable housing + 20-min suburbs insights VIC Challenges
AIHW & MyHospitals Hospital wait times + health stats VIC + National Health
AEC Democracy Dataset Voter participation patterns Civic Engagement
Coala integrates 48+ datasets → unlocking maximum points for open data innovation.
Before Coala
Citizens search 15+ websites for answers
Scam data buried in monthly PDFs
Datasets exist, but don’t talk to each other
With Coala
Ask → “How do I claim Family Tax Benefit?”
Coala:
✅ Fetches real-time data
✅ Explains it in plain English
✅ Links official gov.au sources
✅ Warns of related scams if detected
Description of Use example state permit dataset to ground “steps & timelines.”
Description of Use surface official reports/metrics when explaining requirements.
Description of Use link precise Acts/regs/instruments from guidance steps.
Description of Use authoritative boundaries (SA2/LGA/etc.) for tagging and filtering.
Description of Use quick geography visualisation and links to Data-by-Region.
Description of Use national geographies to map datasets by place (WMS/WFS, GeoJSON).
Description of Use demonstrate cross-agency discovery, freshness ranking, and licensing flags.
Description of Use current cyber alerts feed for safety notices.
Description of Use plain-English scam types and tips surfaced in-app.
Description of Use nearby libraries, community centres, services for local suggestions.
Description of Use simple local helper for families (zone lookup + link out).
Description of Use triage guidance with disadvantage index by area.
Description of Use localise answers (language, age, income, education) by suburb/LGA.
Description of Use show verified agency badges + provenance links.
Description of Use adds Victorian datasets to the same search UI
Description of Use “Scam Facts” panel + “Report a scam” CTA.
Description of Use power Coala’s dataset/service search and resource previews.
Go to Challenge | 21 teams have entered this challenge.
Go to Challenge | 27 teams have entered this challenge.
Go to Challenge | 34 teams have entered this challenge.
Go to Challenge | 17 teams have entered this challenge.
Go to Challenge | 20 teams have entered this challenge.
