LINZ CEO Colin MacDonald Speech at the Launch of the Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy Report

Date: 25 August 2009

Read a transcript of LINZ CEO Collin MacDonald's speech at the launch of the Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy report:

Good evening everyone and welcome

"everything happens somewhere" - and information about where is used to inform many everyday activities...

...whether it's an organisation like Fonterra knowing where its milk tankers are so they can be re-directed depending on actual pickup volumes

or whether it's someone finding a wedding ring lost at the bottom of Wellington Harbour (as reported in Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper last week), the story is the same - location matters!

And so I am really delighted to welcome you all to the launch of the report Spatial information in the New Zealand economy.

I would like to extend a special welcome to the speakers who follow:

• Hon. Maurice Williamson - Minister for Land Information (who will talk about the importance of finding new ways to grow our GDP and some of the work underway in government around information use and re-use )
• Senator Kate Lundy - Senator for the Australian Capital Territory - who will give us the Australian perspective on  spatial information and technology.  Senator Lundy is due in another location and has to leave us by 10 to 7.
• Steve Critchlow - Chair of the Spatial Industries Business Association - our co-hosts this evening. Steve will discuss the role of the spatial industry as an enabler in raising our national productivity.

The report being launched tonight is important. It provides robust economic analysis that quantifies the contribution spatial information makes to the New Zealand economy as well as identifying opportunities for this contribution to grow.

The main finding of the report is that the use and re-use of spatial information is estimated to have added $1.2 billion in productivity related benefits to the New Zealand economy last year.

This value is the result of increasing adoption of modern spatial information technologies, and is equivalent to slightly more than 0.6 per cent of GDP in 2008.

This is a conservative estimate, and does not include non-productivity benefits that are likely to be worth a multiple of this. For example, spatial information is vital for emergency services. The value of getting to the victim of a cardiac arrest on time - is a matter of life or death. Evaluating non-productivity benefits was beyond the scope of this report - but we should not overlook this additional value to the community.

The report contains numerous case studies that show how spatial systems and information are used in almost every area of the economy - from government services to trade, construction, agriculture, transport and tourism. Crucially, location information helps many people around the country make better decisions about how we use our land, our water and other resources.

The report states that there is tremendous potential for further benefits to be realised - and we should start by removing the barriers to this information being used more widely. The most notable barriers identified in the report are to do with accessing government-held data and inconsistency in data standards. The report estimates that by removing these barriers, New Zealand could have benefitted from an additional $481 million in productivity related benefits in 2008, generating at least $100 million in government revenue.

The report recommends that government agencies release the existing spatial data they hold - in forms that maximise re-use.

This reinforces the view that spatial data and systems are raw material for innovation - something our innovative and creative citizens and companies can use to create value.

LINZ is committed to seeing this value created. I'd like to briefly share with you some things we have done, and are doing, to demonstrate that commitment:

We are making our data more accessible. In July, Cabinet approved significant fee reductions for LINZ bulk topographic data as well as for bulk survey and titles data. Both these datasets will be available for less than $100 each from 11 September 2009.

Next month we are launching a new national topographic map series - this contains improved data and will be available at a significantly reduced price due to improved technology. And map files will be available online free of charge.

Making spatial data available for re-use is an important first step towards a broader initiative to develop an effective national Spatial Data Infrastructure - or SDI. We have shaped our strategic direction over the next three years to play a leadership role in developing an SDI for New Zealand.

I am also pleased to announce that in June this year we committed to join the new Co-operative Research Centre for Spatial Information in Australia (known as CRC-SI2). This initiative brings together over 100 organisations from government, the private sector and universities in an eight-year joint venture with a total budget of $180 million Australian Dollars - including cash and in-kind contributions. LINZ's membership aims to foster greater cooperation between New Zealand and Australian organisations involved in leading edge spatial information tools and technologies. It is an example of New Zealand and Australia working together for mutually beneficial outcomes.

Last month we established a national helpdesk to support holders of spatial information in creating metadata - and we will be working with other agencies over the coming months on a proposal to establish a geospatial standards coordination function in LINZ.

Finally, we are working closely with the recently established Spatial Industries Business Association. I would like to congratulate Steve Critchlow and the other industry members who have worked hard to establish this association. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with SIBA to develop joint plans that unlock the potential that spatial information holds for New Zealand.

For New Zealand to realise the value of spatial information more fully, a range of pragmatic and ongoing actions are needed by many participants. It is pleasing to see the important work underway across a range of government agencies that will help realise this value - the Hon Minister Maurice Williamson will mention some of these shortly.

This economics report is a collaborative effort and there are many people to thank. I would particularly like to thank:

• the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Economic Development who along with LINZ provided funding for the project
• the Reference Group who guided the project
• the people from private companies, Crown Research Institutes, local and central government who took time to provide case study material
• and the authors of the report - ACIL Tasman from Australia, SKM from Wellington and Ecological Associates from Auckland who produced a quality document in a short timeframe.

I would now like to introduce the Hon. Maurice Williamson, Minister for Land Information, to say a few words.

A couple of weeks ago the Minister visited LINZ's National Office and was given a whirlwind tour of some of the spatial information technology that LINZ uses. I hope the Minister won't mind me saying that afterwards he mentioned being "like a kid in a chocolate factory" - And he wanted to stay longer! This reflects the Minister's experience working with ICT and we certainly appreciate his knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, this area.

Please join me in welcoming Hon. Minister Williamson