Other Results
Searching for information online
In response to the question asking respondents what they do when they want to find specific government information online, no one selected the option "Don't know / never done this". Only about 3% of the respondents selected the option "If I don't know where to find the information, I won't try to look for it."
Eighty-eight percent of the respondents said they used a search website or tool like Google. It is by far the most common method.
Forty-four percent of the respondents guess which agency provides the information and go to its website. About a third (33%) used a government search website or tool.
Forty-five percent of respondents in the 55-64 and 65+ age groups are more likely to use a government search website or tool, which is higher than the other age groups that range from 15%-27%. This mirrors the result in the next question on the awareness and use of the New Zealand Government's website - a greater proportion of these groups have heard of or visited it.
Figure 18: Searching for government information
online
(Q14. Note that multiple answers allowed; graph based on 1,343 selections from 732 respondents who had got information online from government in the last 12 months; % indicates proportion of 732 respondents, not total responses)
About 3% of the respondents used other means to search for government information online. This included looking for an agency's website address in the phone book, on letters/brochures from agencies, advertising, and calling agencies.
Newzealand.govt.nz
Less than half of the respondents (44%) had heard of or visited the New Zealand Government's website newzealand.govt.nz in the past 12 months.
However, note that according to the website's own visitors' analysis, more than half of the people using the website are from overseas. This survey did not include respondents from overseas and therefore the result of this survey only applies to the New Zealand based segment of the website's audience.
Some respondents heard about the New Zealand Government's website for the first time from the questionnaire. A few of them looked at it straight away and commented positively about the website in the questionnaire itself. It is therefore likely that promoting the website, in particular its all-of-government search capabilities and tools, will yield positive results. At the same time, the value that the website adds over common search websites and tools like Google needs to be clear.
As previously mentioned, more of those in the 55-64 (60%) and 65+ (56%) age groups had heard of or visited the website. Comparatively, less of those in the 18-24 (23%) and 25-34 (30%) age groups had heard of or visited the website.
Figure 19: Heard of newzealand.govt.nz
(Q13. Respondents who had got information online from government in the last 12 months; responses = 735)
Location of government information online
From previous evaluations of government websites by the State Services Commission, for the most part, government agencies publish information on their own websites. The same information is sometimes re-published on non-government websites by others, either as-is or in a value-added form. Potentially, there is a trade-off between increased usefulness of the information (by making it more widely available and/or presenting it in a more context-relevant form) against the impact on the perception of authenticity of the information (by being available on a non-government website).
Respondents were asked whether they thought government information should only be available from government websites or from a variety of government and non-government websites.
About 14% of the respondents thought it didn't matter. This response was more so for those in the 18-24 age group (19%) than those in the 55-64 age group (8%). Others were about equally divided between the two options. Comparatively, those in the 55-64 age group (51%) favoured information being available only from official government websites over those in the 18-24 age group (32%) and 25-34 age group (37%).
Figure 20: Location of government information
(Q15. Respondents who had got information online from government in the last 12 months; responses = 729)
The results indicate that there is no clear preference for either option. Some of the comments indicate that government information is very diverse and that there may be stronger preferences for different types of government information. For example, preferences for visa information and travel advisories to be available from both travel websites and an official government website.
Single personalised view of transactions
Almost two thirds (65%) of the 685 respondents said they would be interested in getting a single, personalised view of their transactions with government. These respondents were then asked what they'd like to have in their personalised view.
Figure 21: Single personalised view of government
(Q23. Note that multiple answers allowed; graph based on 2,460 selections from 446 respondents who had transacted with government online in the last 12 months and were interested in a single, personalised view of their transactions with government; % indicates proportion of 446 respondents, not total responses)
The responses indicated interest for some sort of a "one-stop" where government has a common front-end for people to interact with the whole of government. For example, nine out of ten respondents (92%) who were interested in a single, personalised view of their transactions with government wanted to be able to find and access all of government's online services from one place. Others wanted to be able to ask for help or advice and update government agencies with changes in their circumstances.
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