Local e-Government in New Zealand

Although e-government initiatives have been introduced at all levels of government, the implementation of e-government at the local government level is trailing behind national e-government progress in most countries, including New Zealand. This study addresses this issue by (1) assessing the websites maturity of all local councils in New Zealand; (2) identifying citizen expectations of local e-government, and factors that influence their participation in it; and (3) exploring factors that have influenced the implementation of local e-government initiatives. The findings are that the overall level of local e-government maturity is at a relatively immature. Citizens awareness of available local e-government services is relatively low, and their expectations from e-government remained largely unmet. The major barriers include the lack of an e-government strategy, limitations in broadband access, a lack of skilled human resources, low levels of interoperability and inter-agency collaboration.. The implication is that it will be difficult for local government in New Zealand to meet the established national e-government targets for 2020 if progress continues at its current pace.

Autorentext

Braja Podder received the degree of Master of Computer and Information Science at the Auckland University of Technology in 2005. His area of research was Internet banking. He is currently a PhD student at the Business and Law School of AUT University. His research area is local e-government adoption.