e-local government in New Zealand: The shifting policymaker view

Abstract

The New Zealand government has a strategy in place to establish an e-government infrastructure that is intended to allow citizens and government agencies to interact electronically. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study designed to track the development of e-local government initiatives in New Zealand since 2000. Identical surveys conducted four years apart show heightened recognition by policy makers of sixteen key policy issues judged vital for e-government success; as well as increasing sophistication of local authority websites. The results also indicate that, while the majority of NZ e-government websites appear to have been created to provide information to citizens, there remain many opportunities to use such a vehicle strategically. It is anticipated these results will be of interest both to local and central government policy makers, and to other e-government researchers.