Govt.nz won our very first award at the 2015 ANZIA awards, which we attended in Auckland at the end of August. The team took out the 'Information’ category - which awards initiatives that bring information, knowledge and materials online, including giving people easier access. The Australian and New Zealand Internet Awards are open to organisations that have made significant contributions to the development and use of the internet in either country, so our team were thrilled to win.
We decided to donate our award winnings to NetSafe. Govt.nz are currently working on a pilot of work for 'Older People', which brings together information from multiple agencies, connecting our users to information and services available. This includes things like high use health cards, rates rebates and accommodation supplement information. Because the majority of online scam victims are elderly, we thought it would be fitting to help NetSafe help keep our users safe online.
It's great to see the work we've been doing receive this kind of recognition, especially among peers doing similarly great things on the net. We were pretty overawed by the calibre of contenders we were up against. But it's also nice to just enjoy the kudos, given the amount of work that goes into putting these applications together in the first place (pats self on the back).
The team are continuing the good work - we are partnering with a number of agencies to add more information and better connecting our users to government information. This includes Govt.nz hosting Office of Treaty Settlements content and developing an end-to-end Treaty settlement process guide. Govt.nz also hosts the Flag Consideration Project and the public consultation on the Open Government Partnership. We developed functionality that allows New Zealanders to review what others are saying and for the agencies to analyse raw data exports, to make the information useful for anyone who is interested.
The recent consultations listing and downloadable contact details for government agencies available from the Government A-Z directory are further examples of how we are helping to make it easier to access New Zealand Government information online.
The Govt.nz team sits within the Government Information Services group at the Department of Internal Affairs.
