E-government just part of the mix

By CHRIS BARTON

The Citizens Advice Bureau's worry that the Government is overemphasising electronic communication at the expense of face-to-face contact is not a message this Administration wants to hear.

The comments came as the Government was relaunching its www.govt.nz portal, which it wants to become the dominant means of "enabling ready access to Government information, services and processes" by 2004.

That's really quite silly. As the United Nations report on e-government points out: "Online service delivery should be thought of as complementary rather than accepting the more popular view that it will ultimately replace many traditional channels."

Which is exactly what Citizens Advice is saying.

It's also something many online businesses have learned the hard way. The net is not a panacea. It's just another channel to add to the mix of ways of interacting with customers.

There are other reasons the Government should listen to the bureau. The voluntary group with 91 branches from Kaitaia to Invercargill is at the coal face of community involvement and, as chief executive Nick Toonen points out, deals with 570,000 inquiries a year - 60 per cent related to Government information and services.

It has also seen first hand the effect of Government departments closing their frontline offices and relying on call centres.

While Government websites undoubtedly provide better access to information, what about those who don't have a computer at home? And those who don't have the skills to use a computer and the web?

At the relaunch of the portal, which will cost $4 million a year to run, both Prime Minister Helen Clark and Minister of State Services Trevor Mallard spoke of how information would be available 24 hours a day more conveniently than by phone or in person. No more waiting on hold or in queues.

Which is true - as long as you have access. And as long as you can fully transact online.

While the United Nations report's e-government index ranks New Zealand third in the world behind the US and Australia, it also shows that only 46 per cent of the population is online and only 36 per cent of homes have PCs. Which leaves a lot of people without an internet onramp.

The Government counters by pointing to a recent survey that shows 70 per cent of New Zealanders have used the internet in the past month - but a large number of them are undoubtedly accessing it from work or school. It also points to the use of community buildings such as libraries for access.

But you have to ask if these are the right places for someone to be conducting business with the Government - especially if the nature of the interaction is confidential.

It should be pointed out, too, that while libraries do provide free access to the Government and other websites, they charge up to $8 an hour for email exchanges. If the electronic channel is ever going to work for the Government, email really must be free.

Perhaps free internet access at Citizens Advice Bureau offices - where volunteers can help and advise about online communications - would be a good place to start. Even better would be access that provided video conferencing for virtual face-to-face contact.

Then there's the question of just what the portal provides. There's no doubt an enormous amount of work has gone into the $5.6 million revamp. The search function is vastly improved through the use of "meta-tags" to index information across 90 Government agencies and 3500 central and local government information sources. It's also updated weekly using an automated "spider" to crawl the websites contributing to the portal in search of new metadata.

The new home page is a great improvement, too - providing several different paths to the vast store of online information including "Services", "A to Z Government" and "Things to Know When".

I particularly like the "Participate in Government" section because it's a first step to realising the e-democracy potential of the site. Here the medium might not just empower individual citizens by providing them with an alternative channel for accessing information and services, but also give an efficient means of influence, or at least, having a say.

But despite the flash new interface and the metadata searching, it doesn't take long to find yourself in the same old, mostly boring and badly organised pages of the portal's predecessor, www.nzgo.govt.nz.

There are still not many places where you can fully complete secure online transactions such as obtaining visas, passports, birth and death records, licences and permits. But more are expected in the next few years - especially when State Services and the Inland Revenue Department decide what technologies will be used to uniquely identify users over the net.

But some departments show that Government policy is yet to be formulated. Land Information New Zealand, for example, has spent about $150 million on a computer system that still doesn't provide net access to survey and title information about citizens' properties.

And while the Parliamentary Counsel Office is close to providing the final version of a site that provides free access to our country's laws, the Department for Courts doesn't provide access to information about court proceedings and judgments - although it does allow you to pay fines. Which clearly shows where its e-government priorities lie.

* Email Chris Barton

govt.nz

United Nations report on e-government

Citizens Advice Bureau

Land Information NZ

Interim Website of NZ Legislation

Fine payment online