ICT to lead new wave of state sector reform

IT CAN BE easy to get carried away by both the technology and the policy jargon when discussing the widespread opportunities opening up for the public sector by the next wave of technology.

Revenue Minister Todd McClay, whose department holds a crucial position in this area, explains the issues in a very street-level way.

Speaking to a meeting of mostly technology wonks and policy poohbahs in Wellington in September, McClay eschewed the temptation to frame the issues in either IT or in bureaucratic terms.

Instead, he talked of helping a constituent in his Rotorua electorate deal with the ins and outs of government departments. The constituent, a solo parent, had given the necessary information to the local branch of the Inland Revenue and was having difficulties.

She also had to deal with Work and Income NZ, of course, as a beneficiary, and had gotten into something of a tangle doing so over what should have been a very straightforward situation.

Having provided all the necessary information to Inland Revenue, she then had to trundle around Rotorua’s Tutanekai Street to Work and Income and go through the whole matter all over again.

“And it was the same information,” McClay says. “As far as she was concerned she had given all the necessary information to the government and all she wanted to do was get on with her life and look after her kids and so forth. It was frustrating for her, and she didn’t understand why it was making her life more difficult. And frankly, there is no good reason for that.”

There are even more complex issues, involving what should be a relatively straightforward set of information, when the person is a immigrant.

“They have to provide a huge amount of information, and all the