New Zealand can't have a repeat of the situation in Australia with their government's MyGov site. Photo / 123RF
New Zealand can't have a repeat of the situation in Australia with their government's MyGov site. Photo / 123RF
COMMENT:
In the unlikely event it doesn't exist already, now's a good time to keep a list of important services that didn't cope with the Covid-19 crisis well, and need improvement.
Across the Tasman one item on the list isthe Government's online MyGov service delivery portal which people are asked to use to access the Centrelink social welfare payments system.
The online portal is crucial for Australians, especially now as the novel coronavirus blazes through the economy, but MyGov choked on Monday as people flocked to the site in their thousands to register with Centrelink.
Long story short, MyGov had been set up to handle 55,000 people connecting to it. When more than 95,000 tried to connect, the site threw up cryptic server error messages and people were unable to log in.
That's exactly what mustn't happen when worried and stressed people desperately want to be reassured and trust that their Government knows what it is doing.
Unable to register on MyGov, people tried to visit Centrelink offices in person causing huge queues, which they absolutely shouldn't have had to do because it risked causing further Covid-19 infections.
Making matters worse, the government services minister Stuart Robert first blamed the site failure on a distributed denial of service attack. This is when malicious actors try to crash sites through a massive amount of network connections that servers try to respond to, and which use up computer and network resources until the systems stop working.
Robert had to climb down from that claim hurriedly after Australian government cyber security agencies stepped in and said there hadn't been a denial of service attack, just not enough capacity in the system for everyone trying to use it as they were told to do.
As of writing, MyGov's site capacity has been boosted to 150,000 concurrent users and is working again. People have been asked to phone Centrelink as well, with the predictable result that the lines clogged up and waiting times shot up.
The lesson here is that in a deep crisis like Covid-19, Governments need both robust and tested tech and simpler processes to avoid "incompetence attacks" as the opposition Labor Party slammed the MyGov fiasco.
I've tried to do online grocery shopping in the past, but clicking on pictures on a website and have someone else grab goods to be delivered to you seemed a passive experience and even a little exploitative, like something the rich and spoilt would do.
I won't lie, I wish I was rich and spoilt but much more than that, I really would like online shopping to have scaled better. New Zealand online grocery shopping is being put to the test but seems to be holding up all right, as opposed to Australia where supermarkets have struggled to keep up with demand and have had to suspend services and limit deliveries.
The problems are definitely not the fault of our Supermarket Heroes who deserve huge praise and a pay rise for their work.
Instead it's the "Covidiots" panic shopping unnecessarily, stripping shelves of items to hoard and causing logistics problems as supermarkets try to restock their stores.
VirusFacts2
In the pandemic, we shouldn't have to grocery shop in person. It's risky for all of us, including staff who really are essential workers at the moment, and it makes the coming level 4 self-isolation more difficult and possibly less effective.
Here's hoping the discussions on how to keep punters buying normal amounts and the Covidiot crowds out of supermarkets completely with a robust and trustworthy online shopping systems have already started.
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission watchdog has already eased regulations allowing supermarket chains to co-ordinate their online sales and co-operate around resupply logistics, to ensure vital supplies are in store in most areas.
Allowing some stores to go online only during a crisis might be worth considering, because it would allow the order fulfilment staff to work more quickly without worrying about people like yours truly dawdling in the aisles checking out the specials.
Panic shopping is also easier to control with online-only stores.
Online grocery shopping is already hugely important for vulnerable people, the sick, and the elderly who can't leave their houses.
Just a couple of months ago, few of us would have realised just how vital click'n'collect and food deliveries can be in a crisis. Everything's changed now, and it's a safe bet online shopping will soon be different - and better.
