The NSW government will release the source code underpinning its iVote system before the next election.

The Berejiklian government has accepted a parliamentary inquiry’s recommendation to publicly release the code behind its e-voting software. It will be available six months prior to upcoming elections.

It came after the NSW upper house joint committee on electoral matters found that said that public release of the code would be “an important ejectment to ensure effective scrutiny of the system” that would “give more opportunity for errors to be detected and addressed prior to voters going to the polls”.

The source code for the 2019 state election software was only released prior to the election for those who signed a five-year non-disclosure agreement.

The government says the early release of the code is supported by the NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC), but it has not given any details of how the non-disclosure agreement will change. 

The NSW government has also agreed in principle that the “verification of iVote votes… should, if possible, be carried out by a company other than the company with whole iVoters cast their vote”.

However, it rejected the committee’s finding that the iVote development process should go through “independent oversight by a panel of technology experts” with the “power to publicly recommend against [its] use”.

The government claimed having extra oversight would “undermine the independence of the Electoral Commissioner and potentially threaten public trust in the integrity of the NSW electoral system”.

“These oversight functions in relation to technology assisted voting are appropriate as the NSW Electoral Commissioner is independent from the government,” the government response said.

Australian cyber security expert Vanessa Teague has described the changes as “the minimum possible face-saving rearrangement of deckchairs, none of which will stop it sinking”.

“The requirement to ‘limit any associated non-disclosure agreement to that necessary for security reasons’ is vague and does not mandate honest disclosure to the public in the event that serious problems are found,” she told iTnews.