Click here for our 2020 Election Priorities for a High Tech Economy
ICT can help create a productive and sustainable green economy, especially if we close the digital divide and ensure environmental sustainability.
The internet should be free, open, and unrestricted
- Net neutrality must be upheld. Infrastructure and service providers must not be allowed to play favourites, or restrict types of traffic or use of devices unless authorised by law.
- Government databases should be freely available to the public, where possible. Private information should be available in aggregate without anything that identifies individuals.
- The Privacy Act and Official Information Act should be reviewed and updated to improve access to information. The Bill of Rights should be amended to include the right to privacy.
- Foreign ownership of telecommunications infrastructure should be limited.
We can close the digital divide
- Affordable, world class broadband services should reach everyone, including in rural areas.
- ICT in schools should be used to enhance learning and increase technological literacy, while avoiding the use of schools and education to market particular software and hardware.
- Government websites should be accessible to people with disabilities and available in both English and te reo Maori.
ICT should enhance economic productivity and environmental sustainability
- Government should encourage development, maintenance, and ownership of ICT systems by New Zealand companies.
- Government procurement should support locally developed software with consideration to the wider economic benefits to the New Zealand ICT sector.
Government should encourage the use of Free and Open Source Software
- Software should be subject to copyright, but not be able to be patented unless it is part of a larger development that includes non-software components.
- Copyright and the copying of intellectual property should apply to digital work, with exceptions for normal digital processes like caching, hyperlinking, and error correcting.
Incentives and regulation should be used to reduce the environmental impact of ICT
- Central government and councils should fund organisations that collect, process, re-use, and re-sell used ICT products.
- E-waste should be subject to product stewardship schemes, where sellers and producers are responsible for dealing with products when they are no longer useful.
- E-waste shouldn’t be exported to countries that won’t treat it responsibly.
