Here comes the (egovernment) New Zealanders!

New Zealand is a beautiful place to visit and I have fond memories of my last trip there.

It also happens to be one of the most happening places in eGovernment, at least in this part of the world.

In fact I feel a little disappointed in Australia's progress at the national level compared to the achievements of our nearest neighbour.

For instance, in New Zealand public officials are regularly blogging to share information across the government sector, such as in the Thorndon bubble and Eye of the Fish.

The Network of Public Sector Communicators in NZ also has the Network of Public Sector Communicators Blog to support and aid the discussion.

The NZ State Department runs not one but two official blogs, In Development and Research e-Labs, demonstrating central commitment to the online medium.

The Department also conduct their review of government Web Standards using a wiki, as well as their Guide to Online Participation (Australia doesn't have one of these yet for public sector employees).

In Australia these types of collaborative developments could be easily facilitated via the existing Govdex service (though in my view Mediawiki - as used in NZ - is a lighter, faster and more flexible solution).

New Zealand also uses the online channel for government initiatives, such as their Police Act wiki, when the public was able to provide input into the review of the NZ Police Act through a wiki. This was passed as an act of NZ Parliament as the Wiki Policing Act 2008.

Worst of all, New Zealand beat Australia in the Fullcodepress competition last year in front of a global audience.

I wonder if they have any jobs going?


For more of our neighbour's online initiatives, see this list of eGovernment initiatives in progress in New Zealand.