View the the full policy.

Information Technology (IT) Policy Summary

Key Principles

• Benefits of IT need to be shared among everyone

• IT should be used to enhance productivity and reduce resource use
• Development of IT must be socially responsible and sustainable.
• The use of Free and Open-Source software should be encouraged.

Specific Policy Points

Equity and Access

• Support the establishment of community IT hubs in schools, public libraries and community centres.

• Support research into the feasibility of municipally owned free wireless Internet systems
• Ensure that all Government websites are accessible to people with disabilities
• Aim to provide world-class hi-speed Internet access at reasonable cost to every community
• Ensure that all Government databases, where possible, are made freely available to the public.

Free Open-Source Software (FOSS)

• Require Government departments to consider FOSS where appropriate.

• Encourage a level playing field between commercial vendors of software and FOSS

IT and Education

• Support the balanced use of IT in education

• Encourage the development of educational IT service providers.
• Ensure that the Ministry of Education provides information and support to schools about the benefits and advantages of FOSS.

Taxation and Software Business Issues

• Support the development of independent software ventures in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

• Work with industry to:
  
  1. Improve the availability of venture and seed capital for local commercial software companies.

  2. Develop a Research and Design industry to encourage graduates to stay here to help build our capacities.
• Modify patent laws to specifically exclude software from being patented (software can still be copyrighted), unless it is part of a larger development involving non-software components.
• Ensure that our information systems are developed and maintained by New Zealand companies.

Privacy

• Support review of the Privacy Act 1993 and the Official Information Act 1982, to improve the public access to information.

• Support amending the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to include a right to privacy.
• Publicize the right of people to see and correct personal information held on them.

IT and worker issues

• Ensure that workers are protected from unreasonable employer demands on their non-work time.

• Monitor the health of workers for known harms of IT.

E-Waste and IT Energy Efficiency

• Develop strategies to reduce E-Waste that includes a public education programme >

• Use a combination of incentives and regulation to ensure that the negative environmental effects of E-Waste and IT products are internalised by the industry.
• Set a timetable for the transition to mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• Promote the development and use of energy efficient IT products.
• Fund organisations that collect, process; reuse and resell used IT products.
• Ensure that E-Waste is not exported to regimes with weaker environmental and occupational standards than our own.

IT Obligations and Protocols for State and Industry

• Encourage public scrutiny of any IT system that is responsible for the safety of human life or for democratic processes.

• Develop professional registration for IT personnel working on safety critical applications
• Review software used in the state sector, on an ongoing basis, for security issues.
• Support legislation that increases the reliability of the Internet.
• Ensure that copying, as defined in Intellectual Property (IP) law, applies to digital works.
• Prohibit the removal of identifying data and distribution of altered digital work.
• Ensure that ISPs are not liable for anything done via email, or via their service provision.