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.