Why aren’t we leading the world in Government technology?

Saturday, 5 October 2024

Our Government needs to make better use of local firms when it comes to technology rather then relying so heavily on overseas behemoths, writes Alex Matthews.

Alex Matthews is a local business person in the digital production/IT/games sector, a public speaker on GovTech strategy, and an avid futurist passionate about Aotearoa’s role on the global stage.

OPINION: Being the capital of Aotearoa brings with it unique opportunities in business. Our beautiful city is a central point of population, Government and commercial potential.

Often loved due to its urban density and of connected zones, mixed-use residential, commercial, and public spaces, Wellington embodies the interconnected model. Places and people feel adjacent, accessible within walking distance, with friends bumping into each other wherever they go, illustrating the saying that “Wellington is a small place”.

At its best, Wellington translates this physicality into an analogy of how we work together – with diverse people, private initiatives, and public interests all coming together in meaningful collaboration. That’s a version of Wellington we love. It shows how incredibly effective we can be when we embrace co-operation in different strengths.

5G technology helps chef Simon Gault, based in his Auckland deli, and Robo Chop - AKA CRB 15000 collaborative robot - prepare a crayfish sub lunch from Wellington's Charley Noble.

However, the analogy does not always fit the relationship between government and Kiwi business. It can be unproductive, wasteful, favour multi-nationals out of fear of failure, bypass local talent and miss opportunities to do truly innovative work in collaboration with local capability.

This is especially visible in one of the biggest areas of Government spending – digital procurement. Specifically, this is the money that goes into Government software, IT systems, logistics platforms and tools, websites, mobile apps, network infrastructure; all bundled together in the nomenclature of “GovTech”. For any Government in the modern world, these things are absolutely essential, and the quality of them can have a profound effect on the efficiency of the Government and its ability to serve its citizens. But it can also be rife with pitfalls for wasteful spending on needlessly expensive projects that lead to few or zero outcomes, with mismanagement of resources both human and fiscal.

In total, digital procurement by the Government is worth many billions of dollars per year to New Zealand’s economy; with at least $2.6 billion per year representing a very real dent in New Zealand’s GDP (likely to be significantly more if you include ongoing employment and support costs). Yet underqualified bureaucrats often lack the knowledge, skill and knackery for getting digital projects right.

The waste involved can sometimes be eye-watering.

In my columns I’ve been exploring opportunities that Wellington has to create new revenues, jobs, and sustainable businesses that play to our strengths as an innovative and ethical place. GovTech provides a no-brainer branch of low-hanging fruit, encapsulating so many of our existing strengths. And yet so much of our spending goes offshore on big brand software companies, which can lead to bloated, megalithic costs, ignoring open source systems that rival or out-compete their proprietary equivalents, and all the while actively avoiding local capabilities that desperately need work to keep New Zealand’s local IT industry alive.

I want a super-strong digital economy, backed by an unimpeachably switched-on GovTech sector that leads the world in showing Kiwi ingenuity on display. Government technology is a trillion-dollar global industry that New Zealand could be having a bigger impact on. Most Governments globally have fundamentally the same needs for their software systems, with the differences (ie, in language, culture) being easily customisable between instances.

Why isn’t New Zealand a leading contender on the global stage for the design, implementation, support, know-how and consultation of these GovTech platforms? With one of the strongest democracies in the world, low corruption, and a society passionate about technology, innovation, and being first to things, I’ve always thought that this is fertile ground for us to grow in.

Many have noticed in the Wellington public sector that confidence with technology is very low. There aren’t enough digital natives who know technology like the back of their hands. Open source comprehension and maturity is extremely low, management is often expected to make decisions that they’re not equipped for, and good intentions sometimes supersede rational, informed positions.

There’s no doubt that everyone is working towards good outcomes and wants things to work, but the engine room we have isn’t sufficient to make that happen in a consistent way.

There are plenty of examples of amazing digital projects in the public sector that should be celebrated, such as some that were on display at this year’s fantastic GOVIS conference. The issue is that we need more of these success stories for them to be standard in what we expect, not just the occasional outlier.

Simply put, we suffer from a lack of subject matter mastery, skill, and professionalism in Government agency decision-making around tech solutions and digital procurement.

There are also many extremely talented IT professionals who are given much of the heavy lifting to do, are expected to create miracles and often aren’t listened to at the right times when voice and leadership really matters.

We need bold technocratic leadership to step in on the highest level and develop a new and inclusive vision for New Zealand as a digital-first democracy; one that promotes and leads the world in digital Government services. Leadership, supported by policy to implement GovTech solutions locally with Kiwi innovators, will lead us towards our future as a digital services and products economy.