Kia ora koutou, I’m Liz MacPherson, Government Statistician and Chief Executive of Stats New Zealand, New Zealand’s official data and statistics agency.
My role as Government Statistician involves independently deciding the procedures and methods used for any official statistics produced, or to be produced, in New Zealand.
I’m also the Government Chief Data Steward (or GCDS), a new role I was appointed to in 2017 to enable government to better manage and safely share New Zealand’s data.
Stats NZ partners with, and supports agencies, to build their data capability and use data more effectively, as New Zealand heads into its digital future.
Recognising that data is a taonga for Māori, it’s our duty to steward responsibly with and for future generations. We’re partnering with Māori to build data capability together, improve access to data, and use it as a strategic asset.
This work is underpinned by transparency, trust, and integrity around the use of data the government holds on behalf of New Zealanders.
And here we are on data.govt.nz – an all-of-government website working across government rather than representing any one agency.
We’re working with the Department of Internal Affairs to establish data.govt.nz as the starting place for data conversations in New Zealand – and the home of our GCDS work.
The aim is to bring together data-related information and resources from across government, for people who want to improve how they supply, manage, and use data – now and into the future.
DIA retains responsibility for the data catalogue accessed via data.govt.nz.
We’ve produced a video series where you can hear from some of the experts leading key pieces of work in the GCDS space. I hope you find them useful and informative.