Business of Tech: Inside the Government’s multibillion-dollar digital shake-up

Paul James and Myles Ward. (Image: Supplied/Jacques Steenkamp)

Thu, 25 Sep 2025

The way the New Zealand Government buys technology is about to change in a big way. A Cabinet paper from Judith Collins, the minister for digitising government, has outlined and approved a plan to centralise IT and digital-related government procurement decisions within the Department of Internal Affairs.Facing up to $13 billion in planned technology spending, with only two-thirds of it funded, the DIA team knew something had to change. “The underlying issue is fragmentation,” explained Paul James, the Government's chi...

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