Local government is outperforming central government on both sides of the Tasman in responding to email queries, a University of Otago study has found.
And a declining quality of responses from New Zealand government agencies is a "wake-up call'' over the need to meet community expectations of internet services, the study's first author, Prof Robin Gauld, says.
Prof Gauld is the director of the Centre for Health Systems in the Otago University department of preventive and social medicine.
Central government agencies on both sides of the Tasman scored poorly in the study of e-government responsiveness, published online by a leading journal, Government Information Quarterly.
Government agencies were increasingly encouraging people to use e-government services for things such as applying for passports and doing tax returns.
But if agencies were going to invest in such services they "should be responsive'' to email requests for information, he said.
The study showed the quality of the response - whether questions were answered at all, and if answers were accurate - had "gone down'' since the Otago-run surveys were first conducted in 2006.
Best performers in the overall study were New Zealand local and central government, with specific replies sent back to email queries in 95% and 82% of cases, respectively.
By contrast, the Australian municipal, state and federal government response rates were 76%, 71% and 63%, respectively.
Australian federal agencies had produced a generally "woeful performance'', but had improved from a median ranking of D to a C during that time.
The New Zealand performance has also dropped at central government level, from a B median to C over the same period.
Bold claims had been made in many countries about the potentially "transformative'' power of government internet services.
But many of the survey findings seemed to run counter to this intent, and he asked why agencies displayed email addresses if they were "not going to send replies''.
The researchers speculated that staff were receiving many more emails and were prioritising them.
But if the Government was investing tax money in these services, then "as a member of the public you would expect a response to your queries''.
More resources could be needed, and New Zealand local and regional government showed what could be achieved, with an average B grade achieved.
Prof Gauld said the longitudinal study - carried out in 2006, 2008 and 2013 - involved sending an email to Australian and New Zealand national, state and local government agencies asking for their location and opening hours.