The newly appointed minister has voiced a desire to prevent the "hollowing out" of the New Zealand economy, which looks set to be a theme of his stewardship of the portfolios. Mr Cunliffe says he has "heaps of ideas" to promote the interests of New Zealand-based technology suppliers, but says "not all are mature yet".
IT procurement practices vary too much from one department to another, but don't treat small projects sufficiently differently from larger ones, he says.
Mr Cunliffe says grants won't be his first weapon "to try to lasso" multinationals' research and development work in New Zealand but accepts they are one of the incentives that can end up on the menu.
So far, Mr Cunliffe has given little indication as to whether he will be "tougher on Telecom" than his predecessors in the role when it comes to overseeing telecommunications regulation, while forecasting there will be "more continuity than change".
Mr Cunliffe says he backs Cabinet's decision not to unbundle the local loop but won't say whether or not he sympathised with former communications minister Paul Swain in his attempt to overturn the Commerce Commission's decision on unbundling last year.
"I was not in the room, but clearly I support Cabinet's decision."
Mr Cunliffe appears doubtful that significant changes to New Zealand's telecommunications regime will be brought about through the harmonisation of regulations with Australia - one of the risks to the status quo.
"The Government does have an ongoing process of business law harmonisation with Australia, but there are specific differences in our telecommunications laws and the review of the Telecommunications Act now underway is a good guide to our thinking on that," he says.
"The New Zealand Government is elected to safeguard the national interest and that is the lens I will look at things through."
Despite moves by the Government to transfer decision-making power in other fields such as pharmaceutical licensing to Australian-based trans-Tasman regulatory bodies, Mr Cunliffe says Cabinet speaks with one voice on the issue.
"What it's about is being pragmatic and smart about how we relate to our larger neighbouring market.
"Some moves streamline bureaucracy without hollowing out implications or loss of sovereignty and others don't. It's the Government's job to sort one from the other and to try to do so with the national interest in mind."
Mr Cunliffe says his immediate focus will be on advancing the Government's Digital Strategy.
"The big picture for me is very much one of helping New Zealand get into fast-forward for the digital future - getting all New Zealanders online and fully connected. It's not just a technology issue, but a people issue."
Outgoing communications and IT minister Paul Swain, now associate minister for the portfolios, paid tribute to the ICT industry, saying it had been "a privilege to work with some of New Zealand's most talented and creative people during the past five years".
He says the highlights included the Knowledge Wave conference in 2000, passing the Electronic Transactions and Telecommunications acts and "appointing the country's first telecommunications commissioner".
Others were setting up the ICT taskforce, Project Probe, working on e-government, and leading industry delegations to India and the Middle East.
Autor: Tom Pullar-Strecker
Quelle: Stuff, 31.01.2005
