Hon Peter Dunne

Minister of Internal Affairs

16 June 2016 Speech

GOVIS: A Minister’s perspective on disruptive innovation

Good morning and Kia ora tatou.

Thank you Rebecca for your introduction.

I note the theme of this conference is disruptive innovation.

According to the commentariat, this is a subject that I should have daily familiarity with, allegedly because of my hair.

Well, I am sorry to disappoint them, but it is 100% natural, in texture and colour, and seldom needs more than a brush in the morning.

However, on a more serious and substantial note, thank you for the opportunity to open this conference once again, and to address you all today.

GOVIS marks its 25th anniversary this year, and I am delighted to be joining you to celebrate this significant milestone.

The fact that GOVIS is still drawing such a crowd speaks to your relevance and value to information, data and IT professionals across the public sector.

25 years have flashed by so quickly and the number of disruptive innovations in that time has been truly staggering.

Cast your mind back to the year 1991.

The dollar coin had replaced the one dollar bill, the Prime Minister was Jim Bolger and the population of New Zealand was just 3.5 million.

In 1991, the mobile phone was just that, a phone you could take with you – not for long and certainly not in your pocket or hand bag.

Remember the brick?

Texting was still a few years away but once improvements in phone size and cost picked up pace, the mobile phone quickly made an impact on society.

In 1991, most of us had not yet heard of the internet - this was still the domain of specialists and academics.

According to Network Wizards, only twelve hundred New Zealanders had internet connections in 1991.

And those of you who dread the thought of how full your inbox will be when you next check, in 1991 email was only available to a privileged few, and it did not become common place until some years later.

We had not even started to worry about the Y2K bug then.

The clatter of typewriters could still be heard in often smoke filled offices, even if manual typewriters were giving way to their electric replacements.

The most innovative form of technology was most probably the fax machine.

Large personal computers were starting to make an appearance, really though as just as advanced form of word processor.

Now, in recent times, handheld devices have challenged what a portable computer should be.

Skype has provided an alternative to traditional telecommunication services, Google has changed the way we search for information and share documents, and Netflix has transformed the world of entertainment rentals, pushing a need for convenience.

Uber, Air B’nB, and Ali Baba are revolutionising the personal transport, accommodation and retail industries respectively, yet none of them has a physical presence anywhere.

And, as the Panama Papers show, international taxation and financial systems have yet to catch up with these developments.

These are just a few of the many disruptive innovations that have changed our lives over the last 25 years.

The difference now is how quick the pace of change is and how disruptive it can be.

So many aspects of everyday life have been disrupted by innovative technology – from the way we keep in contact with family and friends to how we do business.

Government is not immune to these disruptions.

Our citizens are embracing disruptive innovations and expect us to keep pace with these changes too.

They want to spend less time dealing with government and our processes and more time enjoying their lives.

And they want us to make things easy for them.

For most of our history, New Zealand’s isolation from the rest of the world has meant we have had time to prepare for the disruptive forces that came our way.

25 years ago, when a new product or service was launched overseas, New Zealanders could expect to see it in our markets months, sometimes years, later.

Innovative New Zealanders would go to Europe or America to buy these new products, to get ahead of the market.

In this day and age of the ‘global village’ we are no longer so isolated.

These days it seems we experience disruptive innovations at the same time they are released on the other side of the world.

Last week, New Zealand hosted officials from the Digital 5 nations of: the UK, Estonia, Israel and South Korea.

We are among this select group of leaders in digital government.

Our governments, like many others, are all grappling with the same issues – how do we harness disruptive innovation and provide the kinds of services that our citizens expect?

How can we use the technology and information readily available to us to really make a difference in people’s lives?

What policy settings are needed to promote innovation and encourage some disruptions but protect our citizens?

D5 gives us the opportunity to compare notes, share learnings, and co-operate so that we can remain among the leaders in digital services.

What works in Estonia may not work here, but there are many ideas we can pick up from each other and potentially some problems we can solve together.

In my time as an MP, I have seen many disruptive innovations delivering many benefits to our citizens.

And the funny thing is that New Zealanders who claim to find change difficult have adapted quickly to change, and are world leaders in the uptake of new technology.

In classrooms, Google Apps has allowed a transformation in learning.

Students can access their work anywhere, anytime to collaborate and get feedback from a reliable audience.

The benefits for students learning with improved opportunities for collaboration and communication has led to increased engagement.

In the workplace, ‘the cloud’ is changing how we use hardware and software and internet-based services are developing rapidly.

Xero is a shining example of how the cloud has changed the face of accounting on a global level.

In health care, the drive to digitise is transforming the market and generating innovation opportunities both here and abroad.

We are just scratching the surface of possibilities for improving health results and productivity.

Digitisation of the heath sector has also given New Zealanders some real benefits, allowing patients to access to their information online.

The development of mobile apps and monitoring devices that can interact with the consumer’s health information through the internet is also game changing.

And as an MP, disruptive innovation has taken me from sending letters and faxes to constituents 25 years ago, to reaching thousands instantly with one tweet!

Communications have become instant – a statement or comment does not have to wait to be published in the next morning’s newspaper or that evening’s television news to attract attention – the reaction is instant, and those more traditional media are now the preserve of the follow up, to the follow up story.

And constituents seeking help no longer need to spend time explaining their situation in detail to their MP – they can simply send an electronic file, containing all the documents, all the video and other links immediately, and, more importantly, expect a response almost immediately.

Government has done some of its own disrupting.

The Better Public Services programme is transforming the way in which public services are delivered, and more importantly the way the public service interacts with citizens.

We are starting to see agencies collaborating to develop integrated digital services around New Zealanders’ life events.

This is a fundamental shift to delivering services around the customer, rather than by individual agencies working in their own silos.

The appointment of a Government Chief Information Officer to lead the ICT transformation is another example.

ICT is a vital enabler for better citizen-centric services.

And we recognised that transformation across the system would not happen if we simply carried on as we always have.

Getting different results requires doing things differently.

Of course, greater collaboration across the public sector is the way forward and the Partnership Framework established by GCIO, Colin MacDonald is a great example of senior leaders working across government.

From revising the Government ICT Strategy to leading the work supporting it, these groups are demonstrating new ways of working.

As a government, we have seized the huge opportunity digital delivery offers to get more of our services out to those who need them, in a way that they can easily use.

And we are seeing results:

• 85 percent of births are now registered online.

• More than 80 percent of tax returns are completed online.

• And around 50 percent of passport renewals are done online.

The Government ICT strategy recognises the opportunities to leverage emerging technologies.

And a focus on common platforms has helped us streamline procurement.

That is making a $70 million dollar difference each year, in savings and cost avoidance across the system.

Better fiscal management is one of this government’s priorities.

The money we do not spend building and maintaining separate IT systems, can be returned to New Zealanders or go into more frontline services.

Earlier this month I highlighted some of the work that is taking place at DIA in the government open data space.

And it is beginning to gain some serious momentum.

Government Information Services in DIA recently launched a test version of an upgraded data.govt.nz website to enable anyone with an interest in government data to locate, use and re-use over four thousand datasets made available by agencies.

We can all appreciate that there are huge benefits to New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses if we realise the value in the data that is available.

With the innovations being trialled on data.govt.nz, it is never been easier to access and interpret data – data that helps us see obstacles ahead of us, confirm our thinking and in some cases alter our thinking, and shape the services and policies that can change lives for the better.

It is also a wonderful example of government agencies collaborating to promote transparent government and in the process raise their digital capability and expertise.

Another example is a new online product that will make it easier for parents to access government services around the birth of their child.

For new parents, it will intuitively help them sort out their entitlements, allow re-use of personal information from one service to the next, reassure parents when they have done things right and confirm the government is taking action.

It is the first uniquely 'Result 10' product that joins up the services of different government agencies for the convenience of parents.

It is also the first of a series of products around other life events such as: getting a job; moving to New Zealand; becoming a victim of crime; moving home or renting a flat; and turning 65.

The Department of Internal Affairs leads work on the product in partnership with Inland Revenue, Ministry for Social Development and Ministry of Health.

If you want to know more, go along to Jeff Montgomery’s presentation later today.

Disruptive innovation is also redefining the skills New Zealanders will need to succeed in a digital future.

Literacy and numeracy skills are central for creating a competitive, skilled and productive workforce.

However, more than a million New Zealand adults, over 40 percent, lack the literacy and numeracy skills to contribute to a knowledge-based economy.

The National Library is exploring the role it can play to help lift these essential skills and to create a greater collective impact with partnerships across government agencies and NGOs to develop initiatives.

Improving adult literacy and numeracy also underpins several of the Government’s Better Public Services results.

What does the future look like?

The world is changing fast.

There will be new technologies and they will bring new cultural norms, new ways of communicating and sharing, and new ways of interacting with government.

Digital technology gives us the tools to make a real difference to people’s lives.

But we must remind ourselves of our core purpose in government - to serve our citizens.

Technology plays a critical role as an enabler by helping make it easier for New Zealanders to achieve their life goals, be it getting a better education, buying a home, supporting a family, or planning for retirement.

The future is about how we best use disruptive innovations for the benefit of the people of Aotearoa as we head towards a more digital world.

The future is about greater collaboration – with citizens, between agencies, with the private sector and with other governments.

It is not about replacing technology with the latest version, but about how we use technology to reshape government so that we are in a better position to change as quickly as the world around us does.

Standing still is not an option, and neither are many of our old ways of doing things.

In a digital environment, trust remains paramount – New Zealanders expect their information to be private and secure.

So we must find the right balance in guarding our citizens’ privacy and using the information we hold to improve services for them.

We are committed to ensure that there are strong personal privacy laws and protections that safeguard our citizens, and that cybersecurity at every level is taken extremely seriously.

You, the professionals in this room, hold the keys to unlock many of our future opportunities – be they in extracting valuable information out of government data, finding new ways to share information or finding new ways to make it easier for citizens to interact with government.

Over the next two days you will hear a lot about disruptive innovation.

None of us can predict which technologies will be the most transformative over the next 25 years.

However, we do know that a shared vision and collaborative approach are needed to nurture innovation.

We have a great foundation to build on and we need to keep evolving, adapt to change faster, and become more responsive to the needs of our customers.

Our challenge is to harness disruptive innovations and work together, not only to find new ways to do the old things, but to reshape our citizens’ experience of government.

And in doing so, we all can, through each gain we make, play a small part in a much bigger assignment: to make life better for all New Zealanders.

Thank you.

ENDS

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