Summary

2 Cabinet endorsement of the NZGLS Standard, and its use by the public sector, is critical to our E-government Strategy approved by Cabinet in April 2001 [CAB Min (01) 10/12 refers]. A key deliverable of our strategy is construction of an all-of-government web portal ('the Portal'). An example of how the Portal will work is provided in paragraphs 19-21 of this paper.

3 The design of the Portal is such that it will not function effectively without widespread creation of 'NZGLS-compliant' [The definition of NZGLS compliant metadata is provided in section A.10 of Annex 1.] metadata records by public sector organisations. Failure to do so would mean that the public and business would not be able to easily access government information and services through the single window to government that the Portal will provide. Other longer-run e-government benefits relating to improved information management and service delivery capability in the public sector would also not be realised.

4 Given the fundamental role of the NZGLS Standard in achieving our e-government goals, I recommend that Public Service departments be directed to create NZGLS-compliant metadata; to ensure that:

• by June 2002 a subset of their services and information resources can be discovered by the Portal search engine; and
• all of their services and relevant information resources can eventually be discovered via the Portal.

5 I also recommend that the wider State sector and local authorities be respectively encouraged, and invited, to undertake the same work.

6 Aside from its importance to e-government, I consider Cabinet endorsement of the NZGLS Standard as being consistent with the recommendations of the State Sector Standards Board regarding the need to set common standards in the public sector. It is also consistent and compatible with relevant international standards.