Published on the 25/07/2014 | Written by Newsdesk

Last night Minister for Communications and Information Technology Amy Adams and her opposition counterparts attended a political panel on ICT…

The Honourable Amy Adams, Clare Curran of Labour, the Green Party’s Gareth Hughes and Internet Party leader Laila Harré were all present to take part in the panel discussion of the ICT agenda hosted at Deloitte in Auckland by the NZ Technology Industry Association.

Each party representative had eight minutes to present their case, followed by a panel discussion moderated by NZ Technology’s CEO Candace Kinser and a Q&A session open to the floor during which Rod Drury expressed his strongly-worded disappointment in Laila Harré for being bank rolled by Kim Dotcom.

The result was a wide ranging and at times heated debate with the top topics of interest being the ICT skills gap, the growing digital divide, privacy, copyright and Labour’s proposed new NZ CTO.

To bring you a quick round-up of the night’s events we’ve tapped the Twitter stream below. You can read the full stream here and see which topics sparked the most online interest.

The state of the ICT industry

iStartNews @iStartNews
ICT is a $23b export industry and 3rd biggest in NZ – something we should be mindful of says @amyadamsMP #nztechpol

Andrew Fox @arfnz
Labour and @clarecurrenmp agree that the ICT industry is a critical part of the NZ economy #NZTechPol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@clarecurranmp calls for strategic political intervention to promote and grow the ICT industry #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
Compared to past elections @clarecurranmp says ICT is becoming a more central issue and she’s excited. #nztechpol

Andrew Fox @arfnz
Panel listens to @roddrury as the plain truth comes out #NZTechPol pic.twitter.com/wZfeOwINPB

Recognition of and plans to remedy the ICT skills gap:

iStartNews @iStartNews
ICT skills a critical issue -Nat recently announced $28m investment and 3 ICT Grad Schools & a science prog to sell STEM to kids #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@clarecurranmp calls for strategic political intervention to promote and grow the ICT industry #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
Panel wants to teach kids code in schools – need to teach teachers how to teach tech first #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
Akld Uni calls govt out on strangling Uni growth due to caps – how can they fill the skills shortage if that’s the case? #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@amyadamsMP says schools can teach code under curriculum & high speed broadband in schools means online courses are accessible #nztechpol

Labour’s NZ CTO proposition:

Andrew Fox @arfnz
Lots of discussion on NZ CTO. Gareth Hughes inviting Nats to follow suit? #NZTechPol

Andrew Fox @arfnz
Internet party is “ambivalent” about idea of NZ CTO. Perhaps they see Dotcom in this role 😛 #NZTechPol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@clarecurranmp says we don’t have deep ICT experience within govt – wants to look outside govt but pref within NZ #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@roddrury a big fan of @clarecurranmp’s NZ CTO idea asks @amyadamsMP to change her mind and embrace it #nztechpol

Privacy concerns:

Andrew Fox @arfnz
@amyadamsMP says Estonia has a law where govt can only ask for the same piece of info once – GENIOUS, but NZ would break #NZTechPol

iStartNews @iStartNews
Privacy seems to the stumbling block for getting NZ to move forwards in adopting more online services #nztechpol

The causes and remedies for the growing digital divide:

iStartNews @iStartNews
@clarecurranmp willing to work across parties to create a Digital Bill of Rights to combat emerging digital divides in NZ #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
Gareth Hughes doesn’t support Digital Bill of Rights suggested by @clarecurranmp – says we have a Bill of Rights, let’s update it #nztechpol

Courtney Allen @amerikiwigirl
200,000 school age children in NZ don’t have access to the Internet – ouch #NZTechPol

UFB:

iStartNews @iStartNews
@amyadamsMP says UFB & RBI projects are on schedule and on budget #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@clarecurranmp promises a serious review of the RBI and UFB – ‘we’ll get that going’ she says #nztechpol

Clare Curran @clarecurranmp
Will ICT & tech become a touchstone issue #election2014? Good debate tonite Thnks @NZTechIA @amyadamsMP @GarethMP & @lailaharre #nztechpol

IRD Business transformation project

iStartNews @iStartNews
@clarecurranmp says we should be taking a more agile approach to the @NZInlandRevenue business transformation project #nztechpol

iStartNews @iStartNews
@roddrury says NZ ICT sector could take $500m out of the inland revenue project today if they were allowed #nztechpol

The Internet Party

iStartNews @iStartNews
@lailaharre responds to @roddrury’s invitation for the Internet Party to get lost – but seems to just be criticising past govts #nztechpol

Laila Harré @lailaharre
@iStartNews @roddrury Agreed to talk further w’ Rod about our ideas for stronger & more transparent tech leadership than CTO might provide.

Finishing up

Clare Curran @clarecurranmp
That @roddrury is a stirrer though isn’t he? (In a good way) #nztechpol

Aditya Tulsian @AdityaTu
#nztechpol @lailaharre kids should learn literacy, numeracy and digitacy. Top moment @roddrury says that’s the Laila we love, if only…

iStartNews @iStartNews
Gareth Hughes wants to see govt backing this century’s economy not last century’s mining/oil industries #nztechpol

Clare Curran @clarecurranmp
Will ICT & tech become a touchstone issue #election2014 ? Good debate tonite Thnks @NZTechIA @amyadamsMP @GarethMP & @lailaharre #nztechpol

Deloitte New Zealand @DeloitteNZ
Great debate here last night on NZ #ICT policy with the @NZTechIA #NZTechPol #ICT political panel http://ow.ly/zyFco

For those who were unable to attend last night’s debate, there will be another panel discussion in Christchurch on August 5th, hosted by the Canterbury Software Cluster. Tweet your questions to @CSCluster using #CSAskGovt.