By Carol Hayward and Tristan Parker
Some 78% of New Zealanders use the internet and 71% of users rate the internet as a more important source of information than family and friends, according to a 2007 survey by Auckland University of Technology. However, the country’s local councils have been slow to capitalise on the opportunities presented by these statistics.
Without the policy drive from central government that occurred in the UK, e-democracy in New Zealand has evolved slowly but steadily to meet very different needs. It is not that the country’s local government officers and councillors do not want to engage with the public, more that their policy processes appear more formal and planning is more long-term.
Councils in New Zealand are required to produce 10-year Long-Term Council Community Plans (LTCCPs), updated every three years. These require a significant amount of public consultation, including public hearings, before acceptance. The last set of plans was produced in 2009, and many councils tried new ways of engaging the public such as Facebook groups, online discussion forums, budget simulators and working with young people to produce video submissions.
A 2009 survey from the Association of Local Government Information Managers (ALGIM – New Zealand’s equivalent of the UK’s Socitm) identified that the most common e-democracy tools used were online submissions (71%); online surveys (38%); RSS feeds for news releases etc (33%); online bulletin boards (32%); and email alerts (27%).
Looking forward, 41% of councils intended to implement online opinion polls on planning and legislation in the next two years; 38% online forums; 35% web broadcasting; and 35% email or SMS alerts.
The key constraints for not carrying out more e-democracy activities were identified as costs; lack of knowledge; and lack of staff or IT resources. Most New Zealand councils do not have a specific budget for implementing e-democracy activities, apart from those used for statutory submissions.
Mike Manson, CEO of ALGIM and Business Develoment Executive at Palmerston North City Council, tells E-Government Bulletin that although central government in New Zealand is required to implement e-government, councils are not, meaning local progress is notably slower. “Many smaller councils lack the resources and capability to implement e-government measures and this creates a barrier to use, as some only have part-time or no dedicated web staff”, Manson says.
On the other hand, there is a growing use of social media among councils. Favourites, according to last year’s annual ALGIM survey of council websites, were YouTube and Facebook, although Twitter use also seems to be growing. In addition, some councils are experimenting with the use of blogs and the image-sharing platform Flickr.
Some survey respondents have said they would like to use social media websites but at present these are blocked for staff use or there are bandwidth constraints that limit opportunities. For those who are currently exploring this area of work, youth engagement seems to be one of the main drivers.
Some interesting examples of e-democracy or interactive technologies that are taking place in New Zealand local government include:
Hurunui District Council: uses project blogs to encourage greater participation and keep the community informed. These include a Youth Voices blog and one used by the Waipara River Management working party for discussion between meetings.
Wellington City Council: e-petitions were developed in-house and established in early 2007. A representative from the council’s democratic services department told E-Government Bulletin there has been a steady increase in the number of e-petition applications received on topics such as dog bylaws, liquor licensing, parking and restoration of local buildings. The largest e-petition response so far – to retain recycling bins for suburban homes – received almost 10,000 signatures, and the system is becoming the preferred method of lobbying the council.
Manukau City Council: Google groups were established to ‘test the water’ and start discussions on LTCCP planning and spending, and a Twitter account is used to engage with a strong youth demographic (42% of the population in Manukau is under 25) and invite instant feedback on issues such as waste management. This is a key benefit for councils using social media, says Kylie Gibbon, web strategy editor at Manukau City Council: “It’s hard to engage busy people, so you have to go to the spaces they are in, rather than expect them to come to you. It gives a whole new way of engaging and consulting with people.”
Twitter has also played a role in emergency situations, Gibbon says. “Twitter has been invaluable during recent tsunami warnings in New Zealand [such as February’s earthquake in Chile]. We used it as an additional way to update our residents to stay away from beaches and update them on the progress of the tsunami.”
Palmerston North: the council has developed a consultation panel of around 700 randomly-selected residents who are emailed a monthly survey on topical issues. “We developed the email-panel to find out what the ‘silent majority’ is thinking”, Andrew Boyle, head of community planning at Palmerston North, told E-Government Bulletin. “For the council to make decisions in light of all community views, we need to know what the range of people in our community are thinking.”
Palmerston also uses an online chat facility as an optional alternative customer service channel – a “logical extension” of the current 24/7 call centre service, says Hamish Richardson, web manager at the council: “It provides a medium for people who for whatever reason may not want or be able to communicate verbally. It has also proved useful for people who live overseas, such as former residents who still own property in the city”, said Richardson.
Kylie Gibbon from Manukau says although New Zealand still has some way to go to reach the levels of e-government developed in the UK and US, there are many people working in the sector with a strong desire to push online services forward, and who are used to working with shoestring budgets. “The public expect to be able to do business online with a council these days,” says Gibbon, “as they do with most other organisations. Customer demand and expectations will be the push that makes it happen.”
More information about the ALGIM survey and the case studies can be found at: http://www.algim.org.nz .
NOTE: Article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 307.
Click here to visit/return to issue 307 index
