OIA0169 Millar Advice to the Minister of Statistics.pdf

16 February 2018
Aide memoire to the Minister of Statistics:
Launch of Data Ventures
Purpose
1.
We have recently established a small ‘Data Ventures’ group within Stats NZ, with
the appointment of Drew Broadley as Executive Director. The aim of this group is
to partner to commercialise Stats NZ’s knowledge and expertise, and in so doing
the
encourage the development of new and innovative ways to grow data access and
analytics services for New Zealand.
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2.
Attached to this Aide Memoire is a slide pack that outlines their work so far and
their vision for the future. Data Ventures will be added to a future officials’ meeting
agenda for a more in depth discussion.
3.
A soft launch of Data Ventures will take place on 20 February 2018, with an article
in the NBR, and possibly in the New Zealand Herald and Dominion Post.
4.
All  queries  should  be  directed  to  Stats  NZ,  however  potential  questions  and
answers are below.
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Questions and answers that may arise.
Are we selling Stats NZ data?
5.
No.  Data  Ventures  will  generate revenue  by  creating  or  licensing  products  and
services built on top of data.
What is Data Ventures doing with the revenue it generates?
6.
Data Ventures will reinvest any revenue gathered back into its venture pipeline.
Is Data Ventures all about making money?
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7.
No, Data Ventures will have both commercial to non-commercial ventures, with
the commercial ventures proceeds funding the non-commercial ones. There is a
3:1 ratio of commercial to social good ventures.
8.
All ventures that are not taken forward for commercialisation by Stats NZ will be
packaged  up  and  open  sourced,  so  NZ  citizens  and  businesses  can  take  the
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opportunity and succeed where we could not.
9.
All  data  acquired  and  created  by  Data  Ventures  is  fed  to  Stats  NZ  for  non-
commercial benefits, such as improving existing data and statistical outputs.
What is an example of the sorts of things Data Ventures might do?
10. Data Ventures will look to partner to gain access to  commercial or private data
sources,  like  those  from  accounting  products,  for  example.  These  will  then  be
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brought together with Stats NZ expertise to more insights than Stats NZ could do
alone.
11. Data from accounting products, for example, could be brought together to develop
a mapping and classification of accounting data across all businesses to allow the
development  of  more  accurate  business  benchmarking  tools.  The  result  of  this

would be better comparison and insights available openly to accountants and
advisors to help both emerging and existing businesses flourish.
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Memorandum
To:
Hon James Shaw

Date:
6 April 2018
Subject:  Update on Data Ventures

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1.  As mentioned by Drew Broadley (Director of Data Ventures) when he last met with
Minister Shaw on 26 February 2018, it was signalled the Minister would be supplied with
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the first ventures that Data Ventures will be focusing on.

2.  As part of Data Ventures’ open principles and open standards, we presented on Open
Data Day a timeline of milestones. Aligned with those timings, we have released a high
level blog post and twitter update of the first ventures.

3.  Over the next three weeks (9th April – 27th April) we will be releasing the ten lean canvases
to our blog (https://medium.com/data-ventures) and through our twitter account
(https://twitter.com/dataventuresnz) relating to these ventures.
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4.  The ten lean canvases are attached.

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Report to the Minister of Statistics: Weekly report for the period to
23 February 2018
Date:
23 February 2018
Priority:
Medium
Security level:
In confidence
File number:
MM1771
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Contact details
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First
Name
Position
Telephone
contact
Grace McLean
Private Secretary to the
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X
Minister of Statistics
Matthew
Manager, Office of the
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9(2)(a)

Bloomer
Government Statistician under
and Chief Executive
Purpose
▪
The weekly report is prepared by officials every Friday (unless otherwise specified). The
report provides you with a regular update on the business of Stats NZ.
▪
No action is required from you; officials are available to brief you further at your request
Regular progress updates
Officials will provide you regular progress updates on the following topics, as appropriate:
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▪
Role and activities regarding the Government Chief Data Steward
▪
2018 Census
▪
Census Transformation
▪
Statistics Legislative Review
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▪
Engagement with the Iwi Chairs Forum: Leadership Group on Data
▪
Government Priorities (including: Measuring child poverty, foreign property ownership and
a comprehensive set of environmental, social and economic sustainability indicators)
▪
Stats NZ’s accommodation
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For your information
D5 events this week
Digital Nations 2030 Summit in Auckland
1.  Stats NZ representatives attended the Digital Nations Summit in Auckland this week, with
the  Government  Statistician  Liz  MacPherson  being  on  a  panel  discussing  Big  Data  for
predictive outcomes.
2.  One  of  the  main  impressions  from  the  D5  sessions  was  remarkable  consistency  in  the
views of panellists that capability, culture and education were all critical to enabling us to
become a truly digital nation.
3.  NZ is well placed in its journey, and there are many examples of digital innovation across
the
the country. It was commented a number of times that innovation is part of the kiwi ‘number
8 wire’ psyche.
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4.  Technology is changing fast, driverless cars and blockchain are only two examples, and
we  need  to  be  ready  to  embrace  disruptive  changes  of  this  kind  through  enabling
legislation and regulation.
5.  Trust and social license, encompassing privacy and security, are fundamental to enabling
citizens to embrace a digital government.
Digital Government Showcase
6.  Stats NZ’s Integrated Data display at the D5 Digital Government Showcase was a great
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success. Many national and international government officials made it a priority to visit our
stand, showing the amount of interest there is in this world-leading technology.
7.  International  visitors  included government  officials  and ministers from  Estonia,  Uruguay
and the Canadian Government’s Chief Information Officer. They were specifically looking
out for the integrated data stand, as their governments are wanting to learn from us how
they  can  implement  integrated  data  infrastructures.  Tongan  officials,  and  the  UK  High
Commissioner to NZ were already familiar with the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI)  and
interested to find our more. Government Statistician Liz MacPherson was on hand to talk
about how Stats NZ started the IDIand the next stages.
8.  It was also a great opportunity to discuss with officials from other New Zealand government
departments how Stats NZ both empowers and safeguards the use of integrated data as
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part of our aim to be as transparent as possible about how New Zealanders’ data is being
used and for what outcomes.
Data Venture launch
9.  On the 21 February, Stats NZ launched our Data Ventures group through a NBR article,
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with the aim to create greater awareness of this new venture. At the same time, the Data
Ventures  website,  https://dataventures.nz/,  went  live.  Data  Ventures  will  partner  to
commercialise  Stats  NZ  knowledge  and  expertise,  and  in  so  doing  encourage  the
development of new and innovative ways to grow data access and analytics services for
New Zealand.
10. Prior  to  this  launch,  Drew  Broadley,  the  Executive  Director,  has  been  building  the  core
team of Data Ventures, while also testing, taking feedback and shaping the story of Data
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Ventures.  This  has  been  tested  with  Stats  NZ  people  internally,  other  government
agencies  (particularly  a  great  opportunity  at  Digital  Nations  2030)  and  a  select  set  of
companies and business people.
11. This was all about testing the Data Ventures offering and validating there is interest from
the potential partners and customers working with Data Ventures.

12. Response has been good, including comments around it being progressive and forward
thinking,  and successfully creating inbound contacts with people looking to partner with
us.
13. We are working towards building a pipeline workflow, recruiting for a customer advisory
group (which Data Ventures will use to validate ventures) and starting the first venture by
30 April.
14. Drew will attend Monday’s officials’ meeting, to update you further on Data Ventures and
its plans.
2018 Census ramping up to the big day
15. This week, 2018 Census field workers have started delivering letters with access codes to
20 percent of the country’s households. Every household needs their code to complete the
2018 Census online, on or before 6 March.
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16. From today (Friday, 23 February) onwards, the remaining 80 percent will start to receive
letters containing the codes.
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Advice to the Minister and
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the GS regarding sexual
orientation and gender
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identity in the 2018 Census

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Open Data Funding
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17/02/2018  9(2)(a)

Advice to the current
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minister regarding spirituality

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and religion in the census
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Census exception reports or  22/03/2018
change requests, and 2018

census programme team
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  meeting minutes
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Public relations
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Cabinet Papers received for departmental consultation
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