Pleasing response to e-govt services

By ADAM GIFFORD

"Pleasantly surprised" is how State Services Commission e-government supremo Laurence Millar describes the stocktake of progress towards electronic government.

"One of the highlights of this process was going through and looking at these sites from all the departments and seeing there is some really innovative and creative stuff out there," said Millar.

He cited the climate change website, which includes a calculator "which shows you how many square miles of the earth's surface is required to support your chosen behaviour or lifestyle".

Government departments and agencies had until June this year to meet the first milestone in the Government's strategy, that the internet be the dominant means of enabling ready access to Government.

The report said agencies "have met this target and many are well on their way to achieving the strategy's target for 2007", which is making networks and the internet integral to the delivery of Government information, services and processes.

It said 28 per cent of people who contacted the Government during the past year used the internet.

The review found 67 per cent of Government websites rated at a high or good standard and generally delivered information well - which means a third of sites need to pull their socks up.

"Most agencies are improving back-office systems such as revamping intranets to provide more relevant and tailored information for staff, introducing electronic document management systems and sharing information and data with other agencies," the report said.

"Some agencies are introducing mobile computing, dramatically improving access to information for staff working away from their offices."

However, online services for the public still tend to be based round individual agencies, meaning citizens must contact several agencies to complete related transactions.

Several initiatives are under way to provide integrated online services.

The e-government unit has just put out a request over building the infrastructure for a shared key authentication system, allowing access to multiple Government systems with the same username and password.

Millar said the strategy looked at three main outcomes - convenience and satisfaction, integration and efficiency and online participation of citizens in the democratic process.