Um, who is ICT Minister? Joyce or Adams?

It seems like a simple question: who is the Minister for ICT (information and communications technology)?

But when the new cabinet was named October 6, ICT portfolio incumbent Amy Adams had become Minister for Communications. And an asterisk appeared by one of Steven Joyce's many titles, Minister for Economic Development, with a footnote saying "The Economic Development portfolio includes responsibility for ICT". 

Industry groups were confused.

So was NBR.

I had the chance yesterday to ask Mr Joyce to clarify.

"It's very straightfoward," he said. "Amy is doing all the stuff she was doing around regulation and so on. The only difference is that as far as the ICT industry goes, i.e. the development of the industry, skills, innovation and offshore marketing — that's me.

"It sort of was anyway. It just wasn't clear. The intention is to make it clear; possibly it's not yet clear."

So Amy Adams is doing ...

"The RBI, the UFB and the regulation of it. I'm doing the industry side," Mr Joyce said.

It just wasn't formalised before?

"That's right. What we were trying to do was address the issue where people would go to her and say 'well you're the minister for ICT you should be marketing the ICT industry and make sure that part is more my area."

A big dog portfolio
Outgoing Tuanz CEO Chris O'Connell says responsibility for developing the ICT industry going to no.4 ranked Mr Joyce is a big positive.

"This is interesting because he is undoubtedly the architect of the ambitious projects that will give New Zealand a huge economic and social advantage in the decades that lie ahead," Mr O'Connell says.

"This is really good news, ICT has traditionally been seen as a relatively lowly portfolio that is used to train a new minister (this has been the case for both Steven and Amy), it has never been held at such a senior level before nor has it beem reclaimed before.  But I think it has dawned on the Government that ICT is going to be the platform that lets them keep delivering across all of their major portfolios without increasing taxes."

Look for a lot of action in the ICT space over the next 12 months as a $29 million ICT tertiery training tender is decided, and National implements its election to allocate $150 million to $200 million more to the $1.35 billion Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) urban fibre rollout, $100 million more to the $300 million Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) and $50 million to fill mobile coverage gaps in remote areas — and a bunfight ensues over all of that contestible funding.

Communications, Broadcasting portfolios combined
The other major development is that Ms Adams is now Minister for Communications and Broadcasting, giving her responsibility for regulating both broadband infrastructure and free-to-air-and paid broadcasters.

That's a sensible move at a time when ICT and broadcasting are converging.

It could be seen as a moral victory for Labour, which pushed a policy of merging the two portfolios while National, at least when in campaign mode, showed little interest.

That's not as good as an actual victory, of course. But right now the party has to take what it can get.

ckeall@nbr.co.nz