Hon Peter Dunne

Minister of Internal Affairs

15 May 2017 Speech
All of Government Transformation Conference

James Cook Hotel, Wellington

Tēnā koutou, hello and good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for the opportunity to open this conference, and to share some thoughts about building a 21st century digital government.

‘Digital government’ and ‘digital transformation’ are buzzwords you will all be well familiar with.

They are nice, high level terms that flow easily off the tongue.

But what does ‘digital government’ and ‘digital transformation’ really mean for your average person?

Obviously, these are the reasons why are here today – to have a peek into what the future holds for all of us who are in the business of transforming the status quo.

So, let us put ourselves in the shoes of Luke, a budding entrepreneur who spent the last five years working at one of the leading gaming companies in San Francisco.

He and his wife Nicole have come back home to set up a new gaming company in Wellington.

They are also expecting their first child and like many New Zealanders, they would like to raise their family in our beautiful country.

Fresh from his stint abroad, Luke’s head is buzzing with new ideas, possibly thanks in part to a double shot of espresso from a local cafe.

He has just met a couple of like-minded game techies who will be joining his new company.

He has also just talked with potential investors and the bank, and will be scoping out a location for his headquarters.

But before he gets carried away, he needs to sort out a few necessary administrative things to get his business in order.

He needs to register his company name, apply for GST, register his trade mark and look up all the information he needs to start a new business.

We can all agree these are not the most thrilling aspects when starting a new venture.

But they need to be done if he wants to get off to a roaring start.

Nicole, on the other hand, is coping with the joys and trials of pregnancy and re-establishing connections with friends and family after five years away.

She is in her second trimester, and is frequently Facetiming her mum in Oamaru and sister in Auckland for advice.

She needs to find a midwife and get back into the health system.

But the reality is that people do not start their day dreaming of ways they would like to interact with government.

If anything, they would prefer little to no interaction with government – they just want to get on with their lives, with minimal interference.

But sometimes, the Government does provide a specific service they need.

And Luke and Nicole, and many like them, want these transactions done in as little time and with as little hassle as possible.

Fortunately for Luke, he can achieve most of what he needs for his new business online, so that makes it easier for him.

And Nicole followed her sister’s advice and looked up SmartStart, which has a checklist for pregnant mums so she now knows what to expect and what to do next to get the services she needs.

She has set up her SmartStart profile and has a personalised timeline and to-do list, and has contacted a midwife to care for her – all from the comfort of her couch at home.

In this day and age when a fully functioning computer can fit in the palm of our hands, New Zealanders have come to expect government services to be available online and at their convenience.

They have the devices to do this and that is what they get from Amazon, so why cannot the Government provide the same level of service?

Our challenge in Government is how to make it easy for people like Luke to invest in new ventures, in themselves, and to contribute to the community.

Over the last few years this Government has been hard at work to make digital government a reality for New Zealanders, and I am delighted at the considerable progress we have already made.

Adapting to citizens’ needs

As a starting point, we have had to appreciate that citizens want services that are easy to access, convenient and tailored to them – and they wanted them yesterday, not in five years’ time.

However, the way government is presently structured – built up over the last 100 years of public sector reforms – does not make it easy to provide services when, where and how our citizens want and expect them.

Traditionally, instead of understanding and meeting the needs of the people, government agencies have been driven by their own machinery and rules.

It is just how things evolved.

People were expected to live their lives in ways that fitted with the way the government did things.

And because for generations, the Government was far more dominant in people’s lives than it is today, that was probably not all that unreasonable.

But, during the term of this Government, through the Better Public Services Programme, which has been our driving force over the past few years, we have been transforming the way in which public services are delivered and, more importantly, the way in which the public service interacts with citizens.

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

And we have to make the most of the tools available – digital, technology, data, collaborating between and among government agencies and local governments, with citizens the private sector and other governments – to achieve transformation across the public sector.

Already we have achieved significant progress in transforming both the technology agencies use and the services they deliver.

New Zealanders have access to a range of government services that are the envy of other countries – things that people have come to take for granted.

So let me share them with you today.

RealMe

Early-on we recognised that digital identity is fundamental for digital services which is why we invested in RealMe, so that it can be used in both the public and private sectors to verify identity at a customer’s request.

Over 275,000 New Zealanders are now using this identity verification service to order online birth, death or marriage certificates, apply for their passports online or enrol to vote, or apply for a student loan.

And all of this can be started and completed from the comfort of their home, office or even your local café!

Online passports

As a government we are seizing the huge opportunity digital delivery offers to get more of our services out to those who need them, in a way that makes it easy for them to use.

One of the best examples of digital technology delivering better public services is our passport.

As some of you will already know, New Zealand introduced the world’s first online passport renewal service in 2012.

Further enhancements to the service have been made over the years to better meet customer needs, such as processing urgent passport applications and reporting lost passports online from anywhere in the world.

Since it was launched, my office and the Department of Internal Affairs have received a steady stream of plaudits and compliments about this fantastic service.

Behind the scenes, our system takes full advantage of biometric technology and goes through 146 automated checks, maintaining the high integrity of our passports.

Within the first year, 25% of adult passport renewals were completed online; this has now grown to 54%.

Services around life events

Delivering integrated services around life events is another shining example of how this Government puts customers at the centre.

You may have heard about SmartStart, our first life event-based integrated digital service that gives new and expectant parents easy online access to government services and support anytime, anywhere.

It presents personalised step-by-step information for customers to help them and their babies get off to the best possible start.

The service crosses traditional agency boundaries and brings together the knowledge and offerings of multiple partners including DIA, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health, Inland Revenue, Plunket and College of Midwives.

SmartStart has proved popular, with more than 65,000 visits to the website since it was launched in December 2016.

It has also been picked up by bloggers who rave about the service – it is great to get such positive feedback for a government service.

Building on the success of SmartStart, other integrated life events services are currently in the pipeline with preparing for and managing bereavement the next to launch.

A new twist on the old “cradle to the grave” approach, if you like!

Transformation in other areas

Other areas of the public service are also embarking on their own transformation that is having a huge impact on New Zealanders.

Inland Revenue has just introduced online GST services, the first of a four-stage programme to modernise our revenue collection system.

Customers can now file and pay their GST at the same time on the myIR secure online service.

The service is available to around 600,000 businesses – including some of you here – to make tax compliance easier.

SmartGate has improved travellers’ experiences when they are about to enter or leave our country, with almost 65% of ePassport holders from New Zealand, Australia, US, and Canada using the service to self-process through our Customs gates.

That is one of the things I look forward to using whenever I travel, and I am always amazed at how technology can simplify an otherwise cumbersome process for some.

Working behind the scenes

These improvements would not be possible without significant work behind the scenes.

Agencies are in an increasingly collaborative mind set now, more than they have ever been in the past.

Working with other agencies, the private sector, vendors, customers, and other governments is becoming the norm as they focus on aligned goals and take a less siloed approach.

By taking a system-wide approach to ICT investment, we have enabled this sort of collaboration and integration and made it easier for agencies to buy in what they need.

Colin MacDonald, the Government Chief Information Officer, will be talking more about the work his team has done to build a digital ecosystem.

Better technology has greatly improved access to information.

And this richer data helps inform Government’s investments to ensure these are better targeted and deliver on long-term outcomes, such as the $321 million Social Investment Package announced by the Prime Minister as part of Budget 2017 to support some of the most vulnerable New Zealanders.

Investing in the future

Growing our future generation also means investing in their education early on so they develop the necessary digital skills.

This Government introduced coding into the New Zealand curriculum in 2011.

With the expansion of the programme last year, this ensures every child from year 1 to year 10 will be exposed to a comprehensive digital technology programme which includes coding.

We also work with the private sector and other stakeholders to complement this digital start.

Last week I hosted a Code Club event at the Beehive, where children from local primary schools taught me and a few of my colleagues how to code!

The event was organised by Code Club Aotearoa, a not-for-profit global movement that works to complement countries’ digital curriculum.

I was so impressed by how far tech-savvy these kids at such a young age, being able to design online games like it is NBD – no big deal – for them.

The Government has also invested in other initiatives to build digital and IT skills for the future, such as funding for ICT graduate schools in Auckland and Christchurch, and investing on Shadow Tech Days to help inspire more young women into technology-related careers and to improve the sector’s gender ratio.

Recognition for our efforts

Despite all these achievements, most people are not aware that New Zealand is doing something special.

Our natural modesty sometimes means keeping quiet when we have done a good job – living up to our reputation as silent achievers.

Well, allow me to make a bit of a fuss because we are doing great things.

New Zealand is, in fact, seen as a digital government world leader.

Our achievements have not gone unnoticed in the international arena.

We are a founding member of D5 – an elite group of the five most digitally advanced nations which include the United Kingdom, Israel, Estonia and South Korea.

These countries have a record of excellence in digital government, designing services around users’ needs and sharing open source solutions with other nations.

Together we compare notes, share learnings and cooperate so we can remain among the leaders in digital government.

Currently New Zealand chairs D5, and we will be hosting our partner nations at the next D5 summit in New Zealand in February 2018.

This is an excellent opportunity for New Zealand to showcase our achievements in digital government that support a thriving, vibrant digital nation.

Other governments are keen to learn from our successes.

This year, DIA has already hosted officials from Portugal, Singapore, the Philippines, Ivory Coast and Latin America, who have come all the way to this part of the world, keen to find out more about what we are doing.

Officials have also been invited to speak in Canada, the United States and Singapore to share our successes and learn from them.

We are also the chair of the OECD e-Leaders’ group until 2018, where we work with like-minded governments to progress digital transformation in the public sector.

International commentators have cited our digital efforts as genuine transformation across the public sector and not just digitising an existing process, product or service.

Pundits have also called out lessons from our experience in the design of technology led public service delivery and on mapping user journeys across governments.

The Fletcher School at Tufts University, which publishes the Digital Evolution Index, has recognised New Zealand’s strengths in this area.

They are currently here to take a deeper look and develop a case study on New Zealand’s digital transformation.

Being singled out as an example is something we are seeing more of as we embark on our journey – definitely a big thumb’s up.

But we need to be more vocal in telling our fellow New Zealanders about our success, and the fact on-line Government services in this country are at the top of the world.

Digital leadership is important because it is lifts international profile and contributes to our growing digital economy.

Looking ahead

Our experience has highlighted the need to be bold in trying new things and in changing the status quo, and to think from the customer’s point of view and not from the perch of government structures.

Our achievements also serve as a spring board for greater things.

We need to keep evolving with the times and become more agile and responsive to our citizens to meet the challenges of the future.

Collaboration needs to be strengthened – between and among government agencies, the private sector and citizens – to deliver more intuitive, integrated services based on people’s needs, not government structures.

Building strong and enduring relationships between central and local government is also crucial to delivering smarter and more efficient services to New Zealanders.

This means taking a proactive, long-term, life-cycle approach to the monitoring and care of the regulatory regimes we administer.

We are after all a small country, so it makes perfect sense to share our resources and work collaboratively.

New Zealanders like Luke and Nicole, do not really care which particular government body they are dealing with.

They just want services that meet their expectations and are delivered how, when and where it suits them.

SmartStart is just the first of these transformative life events services.

Its early success confirms we are on the right track in pushing agency boundaries to provide seamless service for our customers.

Technology plays a critical role as an enabler by helping make it easier for New Zealanders to achieve their life goals.

And we will continue to harness technology and innovation to reshape government so 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.

Digital is making us think really hard about government’s role on how best to provide services and achieve the best outcomes.

At the same time, we must continue to protect and respect our citizens’ information.

Our prime responsibility is to make sure information is only used to deliver targeted services and interventions that improve New Zealanders’ quality of life, and that information we receive is properly protected through robust privacy laws that uphold security and confidentiality.

New Zealanders acknowledge that international tensions mean that objects like security are now more ubiquitous, and grudgingly accept such intrusions.

They see all of this as part of the same issue.

But here is the rub.

We govern by public consent.

In this space that means people will consent to providing their information to enable more joined up government services, to their advantage, so long as they are confident the information they provide remains theirs, and is not just assumed to become the Government’s information to be used and shared as it sees fit; that such information is used only for the purposes for which it is collected, and is neither misused, nor held in insecure ways.

If we fail on any of these counts, either through oversight or excessive enthusiasm, or something more sinister, then we will fail overall, as public consent will be quickly withdrawn.

This is a sobering but timely reminder which bears constant repetition and understanding.

Over the next two days you will hear about how digital services will transform public service across different levels.

You will also hear from Janek Rozov from the Estonian government, who will talk about their experience in digital transforming government services.

I believe New Zealand has the right elements to build a 21st century government – a customer-centred ethos, stronger partnerships, increased collaboration, and enabling digital technology.

Our challenge is balancing these elements and to forge ahead to make life better for all New Zealanders.

These are truly exciting times, and together we can make a lasting impact long into the future.

Thank you.

ends

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