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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2218 ..
MR BERRY (continuing):
ACT public sector in the future. It is more wreckage for a future Labor government, I trust, to tidy up. There are many pieces of wreckage in our community which have been created by this Chief Minister and her department. Labor will not be voting for this budget or this particular line as a result.
MR CORBELL (11.34): In speaking to the Chief Minister's Department appropriation, I want to draw the Assembly's attention to the particular item of e-service delivery. Much has been made by the government in this year's budget in relation to these services for Canberrans. A total of approximately $18 million is being provided in this budget in the year 2000-01 to develop online delivery of government services. This initiative, on its own standing, is welcome. It is important that government make its services available to the Canberra community through new technologies. But again with the e-services line item we see a focus on the gloss and the attractiveness of new technology without taking account of the broader circumstances and the need for an integrated policy approach on electronic service delivery.
There is no doubt that Canberra as a city has a very high percentage of people who have access to the Internet, one of the highest in Australia. However, still the great majority of Canberrans do not have access to the Internet. Access for those who cannot afford or are unable to use this type of technology should be taken into account when the government is setting up its e-services strategy. What is known in debates in Australia and around the world as the growing e-divide is an issue that this government has failed to address in this initiative. There is no point in providing for e-service delivery if at the same time you are not dealing with the issue of those who are unable to access that new technology.
The concern is that the delivery of government services on line comes to be seen by the government as the paramount service delivery option, and other options such as shopfront services, public library services and other face-to-face services are seen as secondary to the e-service delivery option. The reason for that is that the delivery of services electronically is often cheaper than the provision of face-to-face service delivery and it is also quicker.
Those who have access to electronic services benefit greatly from the provision of e-service delivery, but those people who do not have access go backwards, and as more and more information and more and more services are delivered electronically or made available electronically those who do not have that access are left behind. It is a deficit in terms of knowledge, in terms of access and in terms of ability to participate.
Ms Carnell: What about Austouch?
MR CORBELL
: I will respond to the Chief Minister's comment. She says, "What about Austouch?" Let me give a very good example. I cannot see someone who is interested, say, in finding out about something in the budget standing at an Austouch terminal at Civic interchange or somewhere like that going through the ACT government's web site in an attempt to find a particular item in relation to the budget. Clearly, that is not an
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