By Allan Garcia*
The Local Government Fund, under the Networking the Nation Program, offers Councils across the country a significant opportunity to propel their communities well into the 21st century through the provision of new ways of doing business with Councils. Tasmanian Councils are accepting the challenge of moving to the online environment.
They have agreed that the way forward is not to individually outbid each other in the electronic environment but to work together to achieve common outcomes for their communities and look at sharing resources, experiences and infrastructure.
The first stage in this process has been the acknowledgement that to maximise the potential of the funding available under the Local Government Fund, an overarching plan for an online strategy is imperative. Detailing the conceptual framework and architecture will provide Councils and communities alike with a clear understanding of what is hoped to be achieved, the steps to get there and the sequence of particular actions.
Tasmania is fortunate to have an advanced telecommunications infrastructure and the benefit of some extremely successful experiences and projects funded under the Regional Telecommunications and Infrastructure Fund.
Service Tasmania, a dedicated service delivery organisation providing electronic, over the counter and telephone options for services, transactions and information, provides a sound model upon which to build Local Government service delivery capability and with which to interact in the provision of cross jurisdictional, information, services and transactions.
Community access centres are also widely spread throughout the State and are providing Tasmanians in rural and regional communities with access to the internet and enhancing their telecommunications skills. Representatives of the majority of Tasmanian Councils recently attended a workshop that sought to draw out the major components of the strategic plan for online services. General agreement was reached in respect of the broad thrust of an overall strategy and the priorities for moving forward.
In addition to developing the broad framework, the workshop also allowed for the better identification of projects that could be progressed under the first round of funding. Some of these were scoping projects, other experimental or trial projects, and others that could be termed foundation projects.
With the workshop complete and the broad initial projects identified work is presently progressing on formalising the plan and writing project applications for the March round of funding.
Event based services and transactions will be a central theme in the broad strategy with the emphasis being on providing clients with an interface and service that suits their requirements rather than designing a system and processes that best meet the needs of the organisation.
Another broad aim will be to ensure that all Tasmanian communities have a base level of electronic service capability across their respective councils. This is not to say that Tasmanian Councils will be driving up the front of the superhighway but more that they are travelling as a unit on that highway.
*Allan Garcia is Manager Policy with the Local Government Association of Tasmania.
