Henare Tau: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 30 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4996. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
12. 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
 to the  
Minister of Internal Affairs 
: What progress has been made in achieving better public services through all-of-Government ICT initiatives? 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 Excellent progress. Today the Government released the Better Public Services result 10 action plan. Result 10 is about delivering smarter faster and more convenient online public services. We have identified a group of commonly used transactions such as vehicle licences and applying for a passport and our goal is to have 70 percent of these transactions delivered online by 2017. Other key initiatives include the igovt identity service and today the Electronic Identity Verification Bill passed its second reading making good progress towards delivering the igovt service. I also announced today that the Government is taking the next steps towards a cloud computing model which will pave the way for improved services and whole-of-Government savings. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What are the benefits associated with cloud computing? 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Cloud computing is an exciting technology that will contribute directly to better public services and will promote innovation. The first set of cloud-based services will be office productivity services such as email and word processing. This will improve consistency and reduce barriers to collaboration between agencies. Cloud computing will also enable Government agencies to pay per use for information and communications technology products and services delivered through networks rather than investing large amounts of capital in their own information and communications technology server infrastructure. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Mr Speaker—[ 
Interruption 
]  
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I want to hear this question. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What are the next steps for cloud computing? 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN 
: That is an excellent question. The Department of Internal Affairs will issue a request for proposal to provide onshore-hosted cloud-based office productivity services. In parallel a policy framework is being developed by the Department of Internal Affairs in collaboration with other agencies. The department will report back to Ministers by the end of the year. Cloud-based office productivity services such as email and word processing are just the first. There is vast potential for making further services available through the use of cloud and we will continue to work towards making more cloud-based services available. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just want to make it clear that the Labour Party will not object— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I do not hear what the point of order is. [ 
Interruption 
] Order! I do not believe that this has got—[ 
Interruption 
] Forgive me. I will resume my seat and listen carefully. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The House today has had an outburst of multipartisanship on the question of identity verification and computing matters and the Labour Party will not object if Tau Henare wants to seek the leave of the House to ask more questions— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The member will resume his seat. I knew this was not going to be a valid point of order but still I guess I can blame only myself.