Lunch with Paul Shetler starts with a technological hitch. He doesn't receive the email I sent him changing our date to meet at Café Sydney. So I text to ask if I have the wrong address. He replies straight away. "No that's correct. Not sure why I didn't get it but thanks! Looking forward to it :)"

If anyone knows how to track down a missing email, it should be the self-described "technologist". The American was headhunted from his executive job in London with Britain's Government Digital Service in 2015 by Malcolm Turnbull – then communications minister – to run Australia's new Digital Transformation Office (DTO), which was set up with the laudable goal of making it easier for people to find and use government services online.