Increased focus on smart online govt services

Smart new online services will make it easier for the New Zealand public and businesses to interact with the Government, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce and Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain say.

Targets set for the Government’s planned one-stop online shop for businesses (Better Public Services Result 9) and for New Zealanders to complete transactions with government easily online (Result 10) were released today by Prime Minister John Key.

The targets are:

• Business costs from dealing with government will reduce by 25 per cent by 2017, through a year-on-year reduction in effort required to work with agencies (Result 9).
• Government services to business will have similar key performance ratings as leading private sector firms by July 2017, and businesses will be able to contribute to this through an online feedback system from July 2013 (Result 9).
• By 2017 an average of 70 per cent of New Zealanders’ most common transactions with government will be completed in a digital environment –up from 24 per cent currently (Result 10).

Mr Joyce says the targets for the one-stop online shop for businesses are deliberately ambitious to drive a significant improvement in the quality and cost of business interactions with the Government.

“About three million interactions occur between agencies and small-to-medium sized enterprises every four months. Improving the quality of these transactions, and making them easier and faster to complete will have a significant impact for the businesses involved, and for New Zealand’s economy,” Mr Joyce says.

“The one-stop online shop will deliver faster online services, better integration of services and services designed for business.

“We will be working closely with business groups to put in place the best way of measuring these targets without adding time and costs to firms.”

Mr Tremain says New Zealanders increasingly expect service from government agencies that can be done quickly and online from devices such as smartphones and iPads.

“For example, by 2017 we expect that most people will renew an adult passport and pay for a vehicle licence online. This work is off to a great start, with more than 20 agencies already involved,” Mr Tremain says. 

“People don’t want to stand in queues and constantly replicate information. Our goal is to continually improve and lift the bar in providing online services for New Zealanders.”