6. Perceptions of the service

The Levin experience was salutary for the consultants who undertook the work. Citizens were generally neutral about central government, but less than neutral about the march of "progress." They saw changes in the public sector as generally implying at least the threat of a worse service at a higher cost.

In particular they resented:

• Cost shifting - advice groups we talked to cited the inevitable consequence of using Central government on-line material as involving printing charges, including stationary, which were not faced when those agencies produced and printed the pamphlets previously used;

• More distant physical location - they noted the way many services had moved further away. Most of the time access was not a problem, but the impact of distance on their quality of service was noted;

• Increased transaction costs - where the new systems seem to be designed to make things difficult, or at least different for citizens. A strongly held view was that as the 'big player' and the party with the resources, the government ought to be able to make the new channels user-friendly; and

• Inappropriate channel availability - citizens were keenly aware of the frequent need for a variety of channels, with particular need depending on the actual type of transaction being undertaken. So an electronic billing and paying system will need to complemented by the back-up channel that allows dignified and secure discussion of sensitive issues. Levin dwellers were relatively pessimistic about the ability of any government to deliver quality call centres, for instance.

There are concerns, too, about privacy. People worry about their movements and dealings being tracked and some told us they deliberately use a range of names on the net. On the financial side, a group are very concerned about the security of payments, and how this could be assured.

If we put this together with the way related electronic services have fared in New Zealand, and some overseas experience, we can come up with a picture that may be somewhat speculative, but has a degree of justification. It is that there are significant numbers of consumers who are comfortable with electronic services; indeed a subgroup who positively prefer them. But they are not a majority of New Zealanders at present, and are possibly growing slowly. Others could be users, but are not interested in investing time and effort in what they see as extra complex learning, for the sake of a really small number of transactions annually.

All this suggests that the total demand for any special (extra) central government system from citizens (CG2C) is likely to be only a minority of the total citizen numbers. It may be possible to be more positive about the prospects for local government uptake, where the transactions intensity is higher.

Turning to local government we have less firm information to draw on, but can venture the following.

We have already seen that local government has a higher intensity of transactions with citizens including a proportion of LG2B that are effectively with citizens. Some of these transactions are more complex than bill presentment (rates), but others are not. This suggests there might be a different profile of use for local government than central government.

There also seems to be an awareness among some elements of local government that the advantages of electronic channels might mean that they could be offered as an alternative alongside existing channels. This might lead to a different approach among local bodies, which could mean they serve as a valuable series of pilots for electronic billing and paying systems among the public sector.