Evaluating the Value: Comparing Local Government Initiatives in E-gov in the UK and Australia

While Australia's role as a leader in moves to e-government is widely accepted, there appear to be a number of discrepancies emerging as we move down from federal to local levels of government. Thus, while earlier papers (see 1 & 2) revealed federal and state level moves to E-Government are relatively advanced, a recent review of local government websites was less optimistic (3). The potential for e-government at the local level is particularly important, given it that it is here that the "size and geographical diversity... [which] has presented the country with particular problems of communication and travel" are generally most keenly felt (4). Also, deficiencies in the lack of functionality at the grass-roots level of local government will be a significant impediment to the larger context of aims such as the potential for 'joined-up-government' (5). This paper thus continues the research from the user perspective of these services to present results of a comparative content analysis of Australian and UK local government websites. The aim is to further investigate what the implementation of E-Government actually means in terms of the public interface and access initiatives at the regional level. The results of the analysis provide further evidence of Australia being a long way from the clear value of e-government suggested in the notion of 'joined-up-government'.