[LINK] Aussies wary of e-gov transactions

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Aussies wary of e-gov transactions 
By Paul Bartholomew, iTnews
Monday, November 05, 2001 
http://www.itnews.com.au/story.cfm?ID=8384

Most Australians still harbour concerns over the safety of transacting with
government via the Internet, a new study has revealed.

Conducted by international consulting outfit, Taylor Nelson Sofres, the
Government Online Study found that just ten percent of the 1000 Australians
surveyed had used the Internet to pay for government products and services.
Some 68 percent of respondents, on the other hand, considered giving out
their credit card and banking details as "unsafe".

The study also found that only five per cent of respondents had used the
Internet to provide government organisations with personal information.
Some 24 percent, however, were happy to access government Web sites for
information. 

Despite the low number of punters accessing e-government, Australia still
ranked equal sixth out of the 27 countries surveyed by TNS. Norway had the
highest usage of e-government (53 percent over the past 12 months),
followed by Denmark, Canada, Finland, US, Hong Kong and Australia.

At the other end of the e-government spectrum, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, a
spate of eastern block countries and the UK had the lowest take-up rate of
e-government transactions. 

TNS research director, Australia Wendy Mellor, said the survey set out to
provide the organisation's government clients with "the big picture stuff
so they can see where they stand".

"We've had a large interest in government for a number of years and we have
a lot of government clients so we felt it was important to be providing our
clients with some benchmark data," Mellor told iTnews.

"It would appear that more needs to be done to reassure the public that
accessing and providing online information is secure and beneficial and
does not give the impression of a 'Big Brother' operation."

She said that despite many people's misgivings, the research revealed that
more people had transacted with e-government than had bought products and
services over the Internet - the subject of a TNS survey earlier this year.

"We were quite excited to see that Australia is sixth out of the 27
countries so we are doing pretty well. The results are favourable but there
is a lot more opportunity for e-government to be developed in Australia,"
she said.

-- 
What experience and history teach is this - that nations and governments
have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they
might have drawn from it.
-- G.W.F. Hegel
Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, 1830

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd@austarmetro.com.au