Executive Summary

The 'Channel Surfing: How New Zealanders access government' survey was conducted by Auckland UniServices and the Survey Research Unit at The University of Auckland. The research comprised a national telephone survey of over 5000 people, undertaken during June and July 2004. The only exclusion criterion was that participants had to be 18 years of age or older. The survey questions covered two main areas: determining how people had accessed government over the preceding 12 months and exploring New Zealanders' use of the Internet. The area of overlap, issues around use of Internet to contact government, was an area of particular interest. It is hoped that this information will have practical implications and assist the people of New Zealand in accessing government.

This executive summary discusses the key results of the survey, presented primarily in graph and bullet-point format. Further detail is provided in the body of the report.

It is important to bear in mind that respondents were able to choose multiple responses for many questions, so the total scores may add up to more than the number of participants. For example, a person may have made contact with government by telephone and in person, and sent in a form, so this would count as three contacts, all from one person. For this reason, results are usually given as percentages so that comparisons can be made.

Contact with Government

Figures 1 and 2 show the types and frequency of contact respondents had with government and whether this was for personal or work reasons:

Figure 1: Frequency of contact with government

• 73% of respondents had made contact with government in the previous 12 months
• the most common reason for contact was to fill in a form
• people with few qualifications (sixth form certificate or less), are the groups most likely to contact government in general.

Figure 2: The reasons people contacted government over the last twelve months.

Table presented showing average percentage (%) rounded to one decimal point.

• the majority of contacts (75%) are for personal reasons
• males more likely to contact government for work reasons (19.5%), females for personal reasons (80.7%).

Figure three shows the results of a question which asked how often people contacted government over the previous twelve months. This question was linked to an earlier question about the types of contact people had, so that comparisons could be made between contact types.

Figure 3: How often people contacted government over the last twelve months

Data represents the average percentage of responses across all categories of contact

• people mainly contacted the government five times or less
• people with few school qualifications were more likely than other people to contact government more than 20 times.

Figure 4 shows the five most common reasons or topics people contacted government about. More than 20 options were available to people, but many of these options were chosen infrequently.

Figure 4: The top five areas of contact with government over the last twelve months

Data represents the average for each category and percentage (%) rounded to one decimal point.

• females were more likely to contact health and social services
• males were more likely to contact tax, finance or business services.

Channels to contact government

Figure 5 shows the ways in which the people in the survey contacted government during the previous three months.

Figure 5: Percentage of ways people made contact with government

Table presented showing average percentage (%) rounded to one decimal point.

• most people made contact by phone or in person
• people who used email/Internet were likely to be in the 30 to 39 age group
• New Zealand Maori were significantly more likely to make phone contact when seeking information (77%).

The next figure, 6, shows the answers to the questions "Do you have concerns about the security of some ways of contacting government? [if yes] What ways?".

Figure 6: Security concerns when contacting government

• 85% of people had no security concerns when contacting government
• concerns with using the Internet were higher for people who had university entrance or university degrees.

Figure 7 illustrates the five main reasons given for why people chose the Internet or email to contact government. There were 15 answer options available, but many were chosen by very few people.

Figure 7: Top five reasons why people used Internet and email to contact government

Data represent average percentage.

• New Zealand European (400) used this method as it was considered significantly more likely to be handy (27%) and easy (14%).
• people in cities considered that the Internet was faster when used in regards to filling in forms.

Figure 8 shows the five main reasons people chose to make contact by telephone, in person or by letter. There were 10 possible answers available.

Figure 8: Top five reasons why people make contact by phone/in person/mail

Data represent average percentage (%) rounded to one decimal point

• these traditional methods were primarily used because they were seen as faster or easier
• New Zealand Maori (240) were significantly more likely to use these methods as they were considered more personal (31%).

Many participants had not used the Internet to contact government: 3604, or 72%. These people were asked why they did not use the Internet for government contact.

• 29% said they do not use the Internet because they don't have a computer, modem or suitable software
• 23% said they do not need to use the Internet to contact government
• 8% said they do not have computer skills
• 8% said they were not experienced with the Internet
• women were significantly more likely to say that they had no computer.

Sixty percent of the people who did not use the Internet to contact government said that they do use the Internet.

• most of these people were aged under 59 and the age group 30 to 49 was particularly likely to say that they use the Internet.

Survey participants who had accessed the government using the Internet were next asked what the most common way was that they found government websites.

• 39% used a search engine such as 'Google'
• 15% used the government portal website.

All participants in the survey were asked " What government services or information would you be interested in accessing over the Internet in future, that is not currently available as far as you know?" Approximately half the responses were 'Don't know', 'nothing' or similar. Many of the other responses appear to be information that is currently available, such as student loan balances. This suggests that respondents had limited knowledge of the material available through the Internet. There were many different responses, but some of the most common answers were:

• Inland Revenue forms, student loan information and balances and tax regulations and rates
• council by laws and rates
• education, such as information on the National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) and available courses
• immigration, passports and citizenship
• health
• Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) benefits, work opportunities and community services cards.

Thirty-five percent of respondents who had not used the Internet to interact with government said they did not know that they could do so. These people were significantly more likely to be beneficiaries, and unlikely to work for government departments or be New Zealand Europeans.

Respondents were asked if other people find government information using the Internet on their behalf. Eighty percent responded 'no', although New Zealand Māori were more likely to have people find information for them (23%). Of the remaining 332:

• 28% said their child(ren) finds this information for them
• 35% said other family members did
• 23% said a friend finds information for them.

General Internet use

Survey participants were asked a number of questions about how easy it was for them to use the Internet. The results are shown in figure 9.

Figure 9: General Internet use

Survey respondents who used the Internet were next asked how often they use the Internet for work, and for personal reasons. Answer categories included: 'once a day but not every day', 'at least once a month but not every week', 'less than once a month' and 'not used in the last 3 months', as well as 'never' and 'at least once a day'.

• 49% of people use the Internet for personal reasons at least once a day and 35% at least once a week
• more than 40% of people aged 30-49 use the Internet for work everyday

Internet users were also asked where they had used the Internet during the previous three months. Fifty percent had used it at home, and thirty three percent at work. Respondents could choose more than one answer.

• New Zealand Europeans were most likely to use the Internet at home (89%) with 33% also using it at work and 4% at libraries
• Those earning $60,000 and over and people living in cities were more likely to choose the 'work' option
• Respondents on incomes under $20,000 and those in the 'other' ethnic group were more likely to use the Internet at libraries
• Café's were more likely to be used by people in the 20 to 29 age group, and/or those living with flatmates, and males.

Survey respondents who use the Internet were asked a series of questions about Internet security issues including whether their computer had ever been hit by a virus, whether they had received unwanted emails (spam), whether anyone had tried to steal their online banking information and whether they had been invited to take part in a fraud. For each question that a respondent answered 'yes' to, they were asked if this made them less likely to use the Internet.

The majority of people had experienced computer viruses and many had received spam, particularly New Zealand Europeans. Although many respondents had experienced security issues in their use of the internet, this was not usually a deterrent to continued use.

Finally, apart from general demographic questions such as age and income, respondents were asked if they had any permanent accessibility issues that affect their ability to use the Internet. Ninety-two percent said 'no'. Of those that did have these issues:

• 52% cited vision
• 36% had hearing issues
• 75% had movement problems.

Conclusions

The results of this study indicated that there is potential for the public's use of government websites to increase. The majority of respondents to the survey had made contact with the government over the previous 12 months (73%). Of respondents, 28% had used the Internet to do this. Thirty-five percent of respondents did not know they could use the Internet to contact government. Sixty-five percent of respondents had used the Internet in the past 12 months.

One of the main reasons for not contacting government using the Internet was that the respondent did not have suitable computer equipment (29% of responses); this was particularly common for super annuitants (47%) and other beneficiaries and women (36%).

The results of a question asking respondents what government information or services they would be interested in accessing using the Internet, that are not currently available indicates that the New Zealand population has not given much consideration to the issue. There were many 'don't know' responses and many of the other responses were for information already available via the Internet. There were, however, a considerable number of 'nothing' responses.

These results suggest that the potential of the Internet for use by the New Zealand public could be increased by further publicity. It is also interesting to note that although many respondents had experienced security issues in their use of the internet, particularly viruses, this was not usually a deterrent to continued use.

Many of the examinations of responses by demographic factors confirmed previous expectations, for example, older people and beneficiaries are generally less likely to use the Internet, and the telephone is the preferred channel of communication.

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