Conclusion
The focus of much of the research on e-Government has concentrated on the ESD at a national or state level. Municipal councils are relatively new and sometimes reluctant participants to this new form of service provision. Web-based information and service delivery can both engage and disenfranchise different sections of a community thus providing local governments with a dilemma. Logistically there is a need to continually improve the quality of services with fewer resources and on the other hand liaise and maintain close contacts with their communities. While all higher levels of government have been relatively uniform in their progress towards e-Government, local governments have been spasmodic in their approach suggesting a different model to describe stages in web maturity. The research found that the web sites of Australian municipal council focus heavily on governance matters designed to engage the community in all stage of development while the case study showed that they view web improvements as projects rather than an ongoing process.