TUANZ Tech Users Summit

Opening Remarks

Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou. Tēna koutou, tēna koutou, tēna koutou katoa.

Thank you, Craig, TUANZ, and the Digital Health Association, for the welcome and your hard work in organising today's summit.

To the summit theme, "Digital as Core Infrastructure" - as the Minister for Science Innovation and Technology this is an important theme for how it supports science endeavours, and as a part of a Government prioritising infrastructure development and delivery. I will expand later on how the science reforms support this.

Digital Infrastructure

The Connecting Aotearoa report highlights that connectivity is crucial for driving innovation, collaboration, and tech growth.

Our geography is vast, our communities diverse, and our exposure to natural disasters and global disruptions is real. We benefit from digital infrastructure that is fast and resilient. Digital connectedness is also an international motive for economic and social progress.

Major shifts in digital infrastructure have transformed how we live and work. Digital infrastructure secures our data, drives global trade, connects us, and help Kiwi businesses compete internationally.

Digital infrastructure is rapidly evolving globally and we want New Zealand to be a participant - not just a bystander. Much of this innovation comes from the private sector and a strong science, innovation and technology system is required to support that.

Science, innovation, and technology system reform

That's why we are committed to bold, once-in 30 year reforms of our science, innovation and technology system. Reform that delivers real-world impact, drives economic growth, and maximises the $1.2 billion in annual government funding - $0.3 billion for Centres of Research Excellence and $0.3 billion for the Tertiary Research Excellence Fund.

The reforms are looking to reduce red tape, simplify funding and reporting lines, better align research with other successful small advanced economies, and drive better economic returns and economic growth.

To achieve this, we've transformed seven Crown Research Institutes into three Public Research Organisations (PROs) and establishing a fourth. These PROs are:

• the Bioeconomy Science Institute, (Agresearch, Landcare, Scion, Plant & Food),
• the Earth Sciences New Zealand (GNS, NIWA, Metservice),
• the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (ESR),
• and the recently announced New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology.

These changes are already improving coordination, driving efficiency, and ensuring that the system is able to respond dynamically to a complex, digital world.

The Chief Executive of Lincoln based Bioeconomy institute describes the pleasure the scientists previously at Agresearch, now have, in walking across the road to Landcare, without needing a non-disclosure agreement. All of the three PROs are dependent on fast and efficient digital infrastructure, but this requirement is particularly so for the new PRO.
The fourth new PRO, The New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology (NZIAT), is a key part of our plan to grow a high-tech, high-value economy and the Government is investing $231 million over four years into this PRO:

• back science and tech that can shape New Zealand's future industries
• build skills and grow talent in emerging technologies, and
• drive economic growth by turning innovation into real-world products and businesses.

Emerging technologies are dispersed through the science system, but the Advanced Technology PRO will provide a specific focus, as is done in other small advanced economies.

The New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology will be headquartered in Auckland as a hub and spoke model. The first spoke I have announced is with Robinson Research Institute, with $70 million over 7 years supporting cryogenic superconducting, materials and magnet physics.

Two lesser-known digital investments are:

The Governments investment in data connectivity through the Research Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ), which operates a specialist digital network for New Zealand's research and education sector. Since July, REANNZ has also been providing specialised High Performance Compute resources and analytics to researchers working on large-scale, highly complex projects.

The other is the new $20m supercomputer which I recently activated, and is run previously by NIWA, but now by the PRO Earth Sciences New Zealand. This is the largest research computer in New Zealand, one of the most powerful in the Southern Hemisphere, and represents a significant investment in our world-leading climate, marine and freshwater science. The new computer has 2-3 times more processing power than its predecessor, allowing for higher resolution, more frequent processing and additional AI workloads.

Supporting digital infrastructure requires investment and global talent. This is why we're also:

• Bedding in the Prime Minister's new Science, Innovation and Technology Advisory Council, which I am proud to chair, to set national priorities and guide our science investments,
• Developing a national intellectual property policy to support commercial returns from research,
• Reforming the RMA system to unlock economic growth and reduce red tape,
• Changing the Overseas Investment Act to attract high net worth investors by deepening their connection to our country to help grow the economy, and
• We have established Invest New Zealand as a one-stop-shop for foreign direct investment.

These changes will increase investment, simplify the regulatory environment, boost capital, and drive private sector innovation.

The AI Strategy

AI is another revolutionary technology that presents a significant opportunity for New Zealand. When I released New Zealand's first AI Strategy, I signalled - both at home and abroad - that we are ready to harness reform opportunities and that AI will form part of our digital infrastructure.

The AI strategy was not a business case or an investment plan but a signal of government regulatory intentions.

Regulating AI based on hypothetical uses or harms risks overregulation can stifle innovation. We believe that regulation should enable, not inhibit. It should provide clarity and confidence - whether you're a business leader, a researcher, or a member of the public. Our strategy is a commitment to a proportionate, risk-based, and agile approach to AI.

We will actively leverage existing legislation, such as privacy, consumer protection, and human rights laws, to actively respond to both the risks while remaining open to the opportunities it presents all while acknowledging the importance of social licence.

The Privacy Commissioner's recently published the Biometric Privacy Code 2025. The Code is now law under the Privacy Act and will help ensure businesses and organisations implementing biometric technologies are doing so, in a safe and proportionate way.

The Government will continue to respond with agility to address AI-specific risks as they're identified. We will learn from our neighbours and from international examples because AI is a global technology that requires global solutions. This is why we are a signatory to the OECD AI Principles which underpin the AI Strategy, and to the Bletchley, Seoul and Paris declarations.

A key component to support New Zealand's AI ambitions is having foundational AI infrastructure in place. Encouragingly, New Zealand's data centre sector is gaining significant momentum, driven primarily by market demand, and stakeholder and shareholder requirements for renewable energy, which gives us clear differentiation in the global data centre market.

Trust in AI

Some New Zealanders are sceptical of AI, which is why trust is central to the AI Strategy and the Responsible AI Guidance document, which offers practical support for businesses.

These documents lay the groundwork, and broader social license will come as innovative organisations demonstrate the benefits of responsible AI use.

The AI Strategy, the science, innovation and technology system reforms and investments are about getting our basic settings right for digital infrastructure, so that our innovators, our institutions, and our economy and people can thrive.

In closing, the $183 million of funding I announced in the recent Endeavour funding round demonstrates the importance I place on technology and the digital world and the Government's support for funding these ambitions. This round included modelling super critical energy, creating space bound photonic receivers that will replace the current ozone measuring satellite that will stop next year, broad spectrum antivirals, and MedTech smart wearables.

Many if not most of the 19 multiyear multimillion dollar projects will also use AI and all are deeply dependent on technology and digital infrastructure.

Put simply, Science, Technology, and the digital world is currently a highlight area of intellectual endeavour and economic growth for me, and I invite you all to buckle in for what's going to be a heck of a ride, and I look forward to traversing that ride with you.

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora mai tātou.