Minister's Foreword
Achieving our digital potential
We have come a long way since the 2005 Digital Strategy was released. Now it is time to reassess the strategy’s goals, consider new developments and focus our attention on the tasks ahead. Despite measurable progress, much more remains to be done.
New Zealanders have made clear that they see fast, affordable broadband as a business and personal necessity.
Supported by a rock-solid Parliamentary mandate in 2006 following the release of the Telecommunications Stocktake and passage of the resulting Amendment Act, we have unbundled the local loop and completed the operational separation of Telecom New Zealand.
Broadband prices have already tumbled to below ‘a dollar a day’ and New Zealand’s broadband performance has begun to lift from 23rd to 20th in the OECD.
In 2005, the mood was one of quiet desperation. Today, we see energy, enthusiasm and a renewed
sense of purpose.
But that is not, in itself, enough to deliver on our vision of a knowledge-rich, tech-savvy society.
The 2005 Digital Strategy broke new ground by stating that user capability and confidence, and digital content are as important to realising the socio-economic benefits of ICT as the connections themselves.
So we took a broad view of the digital agenda and put in place whole-of-government coordination arrangements.
The Digital Strategy Advisory Group was set up to integrate advice from across the sector.
New Zealand’s Digital Content Strategy was launched in late 2007. It provided the context for the amazing activities happening in the digital content world and identifies the major factors that influence that world. It sets some key challenges and tangible actions to deliver on those challenges. The response to this strategy has been overwhelmingly positive.
The Digital Future Summit 2.0 that the Prime Minister called for late last year issued fresh challenges which provide a clear focus for a refreshed Digital Strategy 2.0.
Looking to a time in the near future where ubiquitous fast broadband and the fully interactive web are taken as a given, the Summit challenged all of us to define and capture the benefits that living and working in this new digital society will bring.
Accordingly, Chapter 7 of this draft strategy provides an opportunity for your input to help answer
this question.
Based on inputs received so far, and our research, we’ve crystallised those key benefits (or outcomes) into three key areas:
- productivity
- sustainability, and
- community (including our unique identity).
We want you to tell us what you think matters, and how the smart use of ICT should transform New Zealand.
Government doesn’t have all the answers. We want your energy, drive and commitment in order to get there.
This document is a call to action for all of us.
Please read this draft strategy carefully and think about its implications for you and for New Zealand. Think about how, by ‘being digital’, you can contribute to improving productivity, enriching our communities and ensuring a sustainable future for New Zealanders.
Then tell us what you think. We have provided you with some new tools – a wiki and online dialogue boxes, as well as an online submission form for you to send us your feedback on this document during April and May, in time for the release of the final strategy mid-year.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Hon David Cunliffe
Minister for Communications and Information Technology
14 April 2008