18 December 2018

The Government has wasted a third of its term on the Chief Technology Officer shambles, stalling work on an effective Digital strategy, National’s Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media spokesperson Melissa Lee says.

“Once again the Labour Party has broken an election manifesto promise but of greater concern is that a year has been wasted that should have been spent developing an innovative Digital policy.

“The Government’s default position on any policy is to farm out the work to a working group, which is exactly what Megan Woods has done by re-allocating the $500,000 CTO budget to a new ‘Digital committee’. There’s no mention of the $100,000 compensation for Derek Handley or the costs to review the failed CTO plan.

“Industry groups will be wondering what happened to the existing working groups in this area like the Government’s Digital Economy and Digital Inclusion Ministerial Advisory Group and the entire Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Ministry Digital Economy team.

“This whole exercise has been ill-thought out, woefully executed and has been terrible for the digital technology stakeholders of New Zealand. How can they be confident that Minister Woods won’t embark on further blunders in a technology sector that needs true leadership?

ends

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