The second annual Taylor Nelson Sofres Government Online study, released today, revealed that 46 percent of adults in Australia had used the Internet to access government services during the 12 months from July-September 2001, well ahead of the global average of 30 percent. The Australian result represents an increase of nearly 50 percent over the previous 12 months' figure of 31 percent.
Taylor Nelson Sofres said it conducted the global survey via telephone and face-to-face interviews with 29,000 people across 31 countries or territories between July and September 2002.
The survey results are a filip for government agencies such as the Australian Tax Office, which have ploughed millions of dollars and extensive resources into encouraging members of the public to access their services online, rather than through more expensive, time-consuming and resource-intensive offline means.
Taylor Nelson Sofres Australia director, social and government, Wendy Mellor, attributed the result in Australia to a "push and pull" effect, with the increased availability of government Web-sites complementing a consumer-driven rise in demand for online access to government services.
Mellor also attributed Australia's high standing amongst the surveyed countries to the fact Australians typically had high levels of education and were "an adaptive people".
Sixty-two per cent of Australian adults aged 25 to 34 had used government online services during the survey period, compared to only eight per cent of the over-65s. However, the highest percentage increase by age group occurred in the 55-64 bracket, up from 18 percent to 39 percent.
However, Mellor noted that Australians - in the same way as the residents of other countries - still had "a long way to go" in forging relationships with agencies via the Internet, with information seeking and downloading of forms far and away the dominant form of Australian government online use. However, Australia rated sixth of the 31 countries surveyed in conducting transactions using a credit card or bank account details, with 14 percent doing do within the survey period. Only seven per cent globally had undertaken transactions during that time.
29 percent of Australian adults felt safe or very safe about disclosing credit card or bank account numbers online, compared to 23 percent during the previous 12 months.
Mellor said in a statement "..clearly concern over safety of information is still an important issue for citizens in spite of some significant positive shifts since the 2001 results in the perceptions of government online being safe".
