ZDNet Australia was contacted recently by a reader who revealed she was unable to register for an Australian Business Number (ABN) online because she is using an Apple computer. After clicking on the tab acknowledging that she had read the privacy statement, she said she was confronted by an error message. Correspondence with the help desk, she claims, confirmed the problem was due to her using a an Apple computer.
However, upon ZDNet Australia's investigation of the allegations yesterday, it has come to light that the link to apply for an ABN is broken completely, with neither Mac nor PC users able to apply online.
The Australian Business Register (ABR) Web site is run by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and is designed to allow people to register their business online, saving about two weeks in administration time, according to the ATO.
-We are aware of the problem," an ATO spokesperson told ZDNet Australia in reference to Mac users being unable to apply online. -We're doing more analysis at the moment on the cause and how extensive it is, and then we'll be working to fix it. I cannot give a timeframe on that." He said there is a problem affecting older browsers on PCs, but they were still trying to work out which computers were affected.
Richard Quinn, owner of Web development company Quinception, said there are often problems with sites that don't take into account cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility. -You'll find that quite often with people who develop Web sites in ASP," said Quinn. -Java doesn't tend to be that much of a problem."
It is not difficult to make Web pages cross compatible, according to Quinn. -It's having a little bit of knowledge as to how things look on Macs."
-I think government sites should be compatible to all computers," said Quinn. -Also, I don't think government sites should use Word documents when they could be using PDF or Rich Text Format."
