Richard Worth

20 May, 2009
Speech to 2009 GOVIS Conference

Today I'd like to talk about the government's priorities and the challenges and opportunities that exist in harnessing information and communications technology for the benefit of New Zealanders.

First it is important to acknowledge that we are in the midst of an international global recession. After a decade of strong economic growth and overflowing tax takes, the country now faces a decade of deficits.

At a time of financial restraint like this, the Government's priority is to focus on the provision of frontline services to the public. The state sector comprises 30 percent of our economy, so it is undoubtedly a key factor in the economic equation.

The Government believes restraint and prudence within the State sector - and leaving maximum room for growth in the productive sector as we move out of recession - must be amongst the government's key responses to these times.

State sector agencies have recently completed line-by-line reviews of their budgets, so that people and funding can be moved into areas that will deliver the best value for money and make the most improvement to frontline services for taxpayers. This is an important first step.

But this environment of restraint and prudence will last for some years, reflecting the uncertain economic times ahead. This year's line- by-line review is not the State sector's only contribution to the restraint. It is the beginning. Seeking value for money and moving resources to the frontline will be an ongoing feature of work by government agencies over the next few years.

The Government expects government agencies, like everyone else, to focus on core activities and that is... services to the public. It means developing and maintaining a tight focus on the policies and programmes that will deliver results. It is also an opportunity to think outside the square and develop new and better ways of delivering services - to do things that make a tangible difference to the lives of New Zealanders.

So what makes a difference to the lives of New Zealanders? In 2007 the State Services Commission conducted the Kiwis Count survey - some of you may be familiar with it. Part of that research programme established - unsurprisingly - that the most important driver of service satisfaction with the New Zealand public was whether or not the service met their expectations.

Two thirds of Kiwis, 66 percent, agreed that - based on their experience of a government service in the last 12 months - they were satisfied that it did meet their expectations. On the other hand, 18 percent of the people who were surveyed disagreed with that statement. That roughly equates to 700,000 people.

That tells us that there is room to improve New Zealanders' experience of frontline public services. New Zealanders are becoming more demanding - they want more personalised service, faster service, and greater convenience.

Better public services come from an understanding of users and their needs and expectations. This applies from the beginning of policy development all the way through to the delivery of frontline services.

British research has found that the quality of frontline public services such as hospital care or vehicle licensing is increasingly compared with other service experiences such as banking or shopping. People expect public services to match the quality of those services provided elsewhere.

And a successful user-focus needs commitment not just from frontline staff, but also from management, strategy and policy - and that includes the valuable contribution you can bring to the table from the IT perspective.

So we know what New Zealanders want at the frontline. They want their expectations met first and foremost. They want the staff they deal with to be competent and to keep their promises, they want to be treated fairly and their individual circumstances taken into account. And they want the services they receive to be an example of good value for tax dollars spent.

That is what your ‘customers' want. Now it is up to us all to provide those services that meet their needs within the serious financial constraints before us. This Government expects better services delivered more efficiently. And we are looking to you, as core players in the government sector, to help make that happen.

So where do we see some specific opportunities?

Statistics provided recently by AUT tell us that 78% of New Zealanders over the age of 15 use the Internet; 53% of those use their bank's online services at least weekly; and more than half describe the Internet as either important, or very important in their daily lives.

The average New Zealander uses the Internet a lot and it is fair to assume that they wish to use it more in their dealings with government. The government sector runs more than 500 websites containing more than 11 million pieces of content.

So herein lies an excellent opportunity to maximise the Internet's potential for improvement to frontline service delivery and to make taxpayers' dollars go further by providing better services for less.

Without doubt, the online world has huge potential to improve frontline services for the public and to deliver value for money. The convenience of being able to access information or make an application or to transact over the Internet 24 by 7 means people do not have to go to an office or wait in a telephone queue. And the more the public want to access services online the more cost effective the delivery of those services will be.

But there are a number of challenges which need to be overcome in order to maximise the Internet's potential for frontline service delivery. These are:

* How to create INTEROPERABILITY between government agencies in order to offer more seamless service to New Zealanders.

* How to provide New Zealanders with ACCESS to government information that is both easy to find and to navigate.

* How to manage online IDENTITY so that New Zealanders can trust their online interactions with government.

* How to build and maintain ICT INFRASTRUCTURE at the lowest possible cost.

I am sure you are aware of the transfer of all-of-Government ICT operations (currently known as Government Technology Services - GTS for short) to the Department of Internal Affairs from the State Services Commission. This will take effect from 1 July 2009.

The Government sees the transfer of GTS to an operational agency as an excellent opportunity to develop a shared service centre for the state sector. It will allow the focal issues of interoperability, access, identity and ICT infrastructure to be soundly addressed in a co-ordinated fashion.

So the outcomes we are seeking are:

* increased interoperability and cost-effective information sharing

* increase use of common ICT services across the state sector

* increased agency and citizen trust and confidence in the online channel

* improved access to government services through the online channel.

The Government is expecting to see a much greater collaboration across public sector IT services to help provide better, smarter public services to the New Zealand public.

A number of GTS staff will be presenting to the conference so you will have the opportunity to learn more about its role.

I'd also like to touch on the important work that Internal Affairs has been doing to securely underpin the transactions between members of the public and government departments. This is the igovt Identity Verification Service (IVS). This is a development across government, in partnership with the State Services Commission, that will provide the public with the means to verify their identity securely online when seeking services from a government agency.

It will enable New Zealanders to conduct business with government agencies more easily and in a more cost-effective and timely fashion. It will avoid the costs and inconvenience of repeatedly verifying a person's identity in-person with multiple agencies and hence provide value for money for individuals, agencies and the Crown.

The initial implementation of the IVS is to be piloted with Births, Deaths and Marriages in late November 2009 and it will be expanded to other agencies as part of the next stage.

Many of your agencies are providing frontline services to the public in a number of ways. I'd like to share with you the work being done by two other departments for which I am responsible in which across-government work is being done in the online space.

Some of you may be aware of the lead role being taken by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) in regard to the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy.

Most human activity depends on geospatial information - on knowing where things are and understanding how they relate to one another. It is part of our daily lives and is essential for good decision making in many areas, from managing resources to finding our way across town. Everything from postal codes to weather maps is referenced to geographic location.

Most geospatial data is collected and held by central and local government agencies for their own purposes. This information is generally not shared widely, therefore not allowing other users to potentially benefit. It also means efforts are likely to be duplicated.

In today's globalised and information-rich world we need to be able to combine and share this geospatial information across organisational boundaries - to help with things like protecting against invasive species, disease epidemics, and threats to national security, as well as planning for New Zealand's future.

The Government has recognised that there are national productivity and efficiency gains to be obtained from more open and accessible geospatial data. The potential value of geospatial information to the New Zealand economy is currently the subject of an economic study commissioned by LINZ. The study is expected to be completed by July and I will be watching this area closely.

Another programme in which I've taken a special interest is the work being done by Archives New Zealand to develop an all-of-public sector plan to manage the increasing amount of digital information in the public sector.

Some of you may be familiar with this plan - it is called the Digital Continuity Action Plan - as there has been extensive consultation with public sector organisations. As you know, information technologies and media are changing rapidly and becoming obsolete. Some information cannot now be accessed when needed to undertake business processes, inform decision making and to deliver services.

You will probably not be surprised to hear that two-thirds of New Zealand public sector organisations have reported that they hold some records that they can no longer access. Of course, not all this information has value but there is a clear danger that valuable information is being buried under the digital landfill and is now unable to be identified and saved.

The Digital Continuity Action Plan advocates a cross-agency approach to the management of digital information - to avoid duplication of effort across government. While some gains can be made on an individual agency level, the greatest gains come from a systems approach where existing expenditure can be leveraged.

The plan enables value for money in government through standards and guidance for cross-agency interoperable systems, efficient information use and re-use, and collaboration to enable back office efficiencies.

Other benefits include leveraging existing research and development and repurposing existing assets. In simple terms, this means paying for information creation once and then benefiting from this expenditure many times.

If you want to know more about the plan I encourage you to speak with colleagues from Archives New Zealand at this conference or in the coming weeks.

So in closing - I acknowledge that you are now operating in a much more challenging fiscal environment. However, my message to you is that you have a vital role to play in harnessing information and communications technology to provide better, smarter services for New Zealanders.

I wish you all the best for a stimulating and thought-provoking conference.

Thank you.

ENDS

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