View the the full policy.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy Summary
Key Principles
- Benefits of ICT need to be shared among everyone
- ICT should be used to enhance productivity and reduce resource use
- Development of ICT 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 ICT 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
ICT and Education
- Support the balanced use of ICT in education
- Encourage the development of educational ICT 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:
- Improve the availability of venture and seed capital for local commercial software companies.
- 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.
ICT 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 ICT.
E-Waste and ICT 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 ICT 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 ICT products.
- Fund organisations that collect, process; reuse and resell used ICT products.
- Ensure that e-waste is not exported to regimes with weaker environmental and occupational standards than our own.
ICT Obligations and Protocols for State and Industry
- Encourage public scrutiny of any ICT system that is responsible for the safety of human life or for democratic processes.
- Develop professional registration for ICT 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.
