Clare Curran's resignation provides opportunity to change course

Sunday, 9 September 2018

OPINION: Clare Curran's retreat to the back-benches may make it easier for the Government to fix a couple of policy problems.

The first is what to do about its selection of marketing technology entrepreneur Derek Handley as its preferred choice to become the country's first chief technology officer.

Another issue that could be rethought is the Government's media policy.

But Curran was also involved in some good work which should be continued.

* Embattled minister Clare Curran struggles to explain using personal email for Government business

* Vacancy: tech supremo to guide NZ into a new age****

CTO a 'dead duck'

The Government had a short window after it announced it was reviewing the CTO appointment process two weeks ago in which it could have confirmed Handley in the job.

But the hiatus has now lasted too long.

The doubts that have been expressed over Handley's credentials for the top job have had too much air-time to be easily glossed over.

IT Professionals chief executive Paul Matthews put what may be the final nail into the coffin of the CTO position on Friday declaring the role as 'probably a dead duck'.

But there is a way out.

Rather than recruit another talking head to face the inevitable potshots, the Government could use the $500,000 it had allocated for a CTO to instead beef up the role of the Office of the Chief Science Adviser.

That was always the favoured option of former chief science adviser Sir Peter Gluckman who pointed out there would have been a lot of cross-over between the two roles.

The role of the chief science adviser has generally been respected.

But Gluckman's exposure of the meth testing industry as a scam was both late and obvious, suggesting the country might benefit from science advice that is better resourced and more proactive.

$500,000 could pay for more full-time or consultant science staff to provide 'expertise' on issues such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, digital inclusion and synthetic foods.

This would be rather than the vague 'advocacy' across a broad range of issues that would have likely flowed from a more generalist CTO.

RNZ a loser?

The Government dished out $15m of extra funding to RNZ and NZ on Air in the May Budget to shore up public broadcasting.

But it has so far stood by and watched as commercial free-to-air television has become unprofitable and local newspaper reporting has been cut back.

Curran advocated for at least a $38m annual funding boost for public broadcasting, envisaging that RNZ would get the lion's share of that to pay for it to launch new but traditional, television channels.

Most people in the industry, including many at RNZ, think the latter is a bad idea that risks further fracturing audiences in a weak market and reducing – rather than increasing – the diversity of journalism in New Zealand.

Solutions to the challenges facing the media industry aren't easy to find and it may be that the Government just has to stand aside for a while longer and watch, while events take their natural course.

Alternatively, it might want to consider intervening with new media law reforms to achieve a planned and orderly consolidation of the sector.

Either way, there is now an opportunity for some fresh thinking.

The chances of RNZ getting a significant budget boost beyond the perhaps-justifiable one it received in May may have taken a dive following Curran's departure as minister.

Smart moves on AI

Clare Curran's biggest achievement as a minister may have been persuading the D7 group of self-declared 'digitally advanced nations' to let New Zealand head a new working group that will look at what has been dubbed a 'digital bill of rights'.

This will include considering whether people should have the right to an explanation of decisions affecting them that have been arrived at using artificial intelligence, and perhaps some 'right of review'.

Around the time of her resignation as minister, Curran was due to receive the results of a stocktake she ordered into the use of algorithms by New Zealand agencies.

Immigration NZ got itself into a tangle earlier this year over the possible use of racial and other profiling when selecting overstayers for deportation.

The impression Immigration NZ created was that it was (and perhaps still is) clueless and confused both about what it was in fact doing and the ethical issues involved.

Ordering a 'stocktake' of the use of algorithms within Government was the perfect place to start and it can only be hoped that Curran's departure won't see her initiatives here sidelined.

Carry on communicating

A big funding boost for RNZ to pay for a move into television may be less likely with Clare Curran out of the hot seat as minister.

Thankfully, Curran leaves no big loose ends in what used to be the core role of the communications portfolio – managing telecommunications regulation.

Who knows whether Curran would have been elevated quickly into a Cabinet position had there been a lot of heavy-lifting to do in the portfolios, and if they couldn't in fact be left largely on auto-pilot for a couple of years.

Network operator Chorus reported a record 16,700 UFB installs in August and the Commerce Commission is again reviewing the mobile market – sticking like glue to its goal of ensuring the country keeps at least three mobile operators.

So outside of the walls of the Beehive at least, there is – right now – no crisis.