IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Some government agencies are reluctant to adopt the new website accessibility guidelines due to take effect early next year, says the State Services Commission.

At a meeting to discuss the new standards held last month, moderated by Edwin Bruce, the Commission's web standards manager, several contributors suggested agencies would be more positive about the changes if minor standards were defined as “good practice”. This would allow them to be introduced into government websites gradually.

Government agencies have been reluctant to collaborate on software and communications standards and their overseers admit it simply isn’t good enough.

"The success of the ICT branch, which started as the E-government Unit, has seen it grow steadily over the last eight and half years. From a dedicated policy focus, the branch has developed and now manages all-of-government 24x7 services like the Government Shared Network, Government Logon Service, Secure Electronic Environment (SEE) Mail, and newzealand.govt.nz.

New Zealand's vehicle owners can now re-license their motor vehicle online, and joint IT partners in this project, Unisys and Intergen, expect many users will easily switch to the online format because of its smart user interface.

Tom Bowden, chief executive of Auckland-based secure messaging and integration specialist HealthLink, said Australia had failed to do the hard work on building basic capacity, setting standards and improving data quality.

"All the really flash stuff has been worked on and there's been lots of bright ideas, but the real effort is still to be done and we won't see solid progress until that occurs," he said.

The May 27 Budget may provide specific funds to further develop the government’s online authentication scheme.

There could be some cash for the IT industry out of the Budget’s $14.8 million funding for electronic authentication development.

It's the cyberspace equivalent of presenting a birth certificate, passport or other heavyweight document to verify that you are indeed who you say you are. The service hasn't been built yet, but has already reaped an international award for the State Services Commission team that has spent years working on it.

The government’s $340 million fund to accelerate broadband is now accepting applications from business and community groups.

The Broadband Investment Fund (BIF) will provide $325 million in operating and $15 million in capital funding over five years. It is a key part of the Government’s Digital Strategy 2.0 package, more details of which are expected to be announced later this week.

The government is investing an extra $14.8 million over the next four years to further develop a secure system for people wanting to use government services over the Internet, State Services Minister Trevor Mallard announced today.

An extra $14.8 million has been put aside to spend over the next four years on "secure online services for government".

In 1973 Britain joined the European Union and New Zealand pledged to diversify its economy away from primary sector exports. More than three decades later, delegates at the TUANZ Rural Broadband Symposium were told that 47% of the country’s exports are produced by 2% of the population.

In the opening presentation to the symposium, commentator Rod Oram was eloquent in his explanation as to why, despite the setbacks, New Zealand has never moved on from being a food-producing nation. Oram told the conference that the world’s population is set to quadruple in his lifetime and so too will the food supply required to feed it.

Funding for specific IT projects was otherwise thin on the ground in this year's budget. While a portion of the $212 million over four years bound for research, science and technology, will no doubt feed tech projects and research and development, the authentication project is the only targeted tech allocation.

The most severe recurring headache in e-government has struck its latest victim with New Zealand ready to drop plans for a cross agency electronic purchasing system, according to reports on 18 June 2003

The initiative involves the implementation of a fibre-optic network to link up agencies located in Wellington and the installation of a wide area network (WAN) to connect regional government offices.