Paper 3 - Policy Accountabilities
Current Situation
There are two policy committees of Council – Public Policy and Technical Policy – which work with the Executive Director and staff to undertake the policy work programme.
The purpose of the Public Policy Committee, as stated, is to coordinate and formulate policy on public policy issues involving the Internet in New Zealand. It reports to Council through the Executive Director, and has the following powers:
o To recommend to the Executive Director the spending of budgets in the Public Policy area
o To co-ordinate and recommend all public policy submission to Government and Parliament
o To finalise and lodge submissions on behalf of InternetNZ except where the lack of a consensus means the submission needs to be referred to Council for agreement.
All members of the InternetNZ Council are by virtue of their appointment, members of both the Public Policy and Technical Policy Committees. Public policy issues are reported to Council through the Executive Director’s report to Council. Tiger teams or sub-groups are established under the committees to undertake the detailed work on specific issues (e.g. copyright, ENUM, IPv6).
In addition, Council determines the strategic priorities for the policy agenda – i.e. in what areas InternetNZ’s energies will be focused. The Council on 16 March 2007 agreed that InternetNZ would be proactive in the following areas – Fibre, IPv6, Peering/Data Exchanging, ICT summit and rural broadband.
Future Situation
InternetNZ Office
The key functions of the InternetNZ Office (the Executive Director’s Office) will encompass:
o advocacy and public policy development
o promoting and fostering technical development and innovation
o international representation at relevant fora
o establishing, project managing and overseeing the activities of specially formed project committees (currently called Task Forces or “Tiger Teams” within the agreed strategy and business plan of the Society).
As the policy wing of InternetNZ, the policy committees (Public Policy and Technical Policy, currently sub-committees of Council) will become accountable instead to the Executive Director’s Oversight Board (which may or may not retain this committee structure). The InternetNZ Council will be two steps removed from the policy development process, which will be undertaken by the Office of InternetNZ and overseen by the Executive Director’s Oversight Board.
Accountabilities
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Activity |
Accountable Entity |
Comment
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Determination of long term strategy and strategic policy priorities
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InternetNZ Council |
Strategic policy is determined by the Council. It determines the overall direction for the key policy issues that InternetNZ will advocate on. It will state what it sees as the priorities for the following year in the Annual Statement of Expectations to the Executive Director’s Oversight Board. The InternetNZ Council will continue to debate substantive policy issues, where appropriate.
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Approval of the top-level policies of the Society
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InternetNZ Council
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Sets out the key principles for the public policy development processes for the business units, approves the policy development process for each unit and monitors the units to ensure they are following their policy development process
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InternetNZ Council |
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Approval of the policy framework underlying the allocation and use of domain names in the .nz domain space and the key principles that underpin.nz policy
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InternetNZ Council |
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Approval of operational policy decisions relating to the stewardship and management of .nz
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Domain Name Commission Ltd |
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Governance of all other policy and advocacy functions (except those relating to the stewardship of .nz), and approval of policies |
Executive Director’s Oversight Board |
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Activity |
Accountable Entity |
Comment
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Oversight of all other policy and advocacy functions |
Executive Director’s Oversight Board
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This function may be delegated by the Executive Director’s Oversight Board to a Standing Committee , Steering Group or Advisory Group
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Development of all other policy and legislative submissions on the internet in New Zealand and its infrastructure (policy, operational, technical, regulatory, legislative etc)
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InternetNZ Office |
The work will be undertaken by staff of the InternetNZ Office (Executive Director) and the policy committee/s |
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Managing the process of consultation on all other policy issues
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InternetNZ Office |
It should be a key principle that InternetNZ members should always have the opportunity to provide input on current issues.
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Providing a forum for the exchange of information on, and analysis of, current developments in the internet and internet infrastructure in NZ
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InternetNZ Office |
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Monitoring policy and legislation implementation
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InternetNZ Office |
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Policy Development Process
It is proposed that each business unit is required to have a policy development process (PDP) for the development of public policies. The InternetNZ Council will set the key principles for the PDP and the business units develop their own processes within these. The InternetNZ Council will monitor the business units to ensure that the PDP is followed for all policy development.
Key principles should include:
o policies must be consistent with the long term strategy direction set by the InternetNZ Council
o the policy development process must be open and transparent
o there must be consultation with other InternetNZ business units and where there is any potential of impact on a related technical or policy matter
o input must be sought from InternetNZ members and other interested parties when establishing policies
o all policies should be quality assured by someone who is competent to do so, and who has not been involved in the policy development process
o all policies should be evaluated on a regular cycle
Reporting on Policy Initiatives
Currently the InternetNZ Council receive regular reports on policy issues through the Executive Director’s report to Council. In future the Executive Director will report to the Executive Director’s Oversight Board, and will have no direct relationship with the Council. The Council should require regular reporting from the Executive Director’s Oversight Board on policy issues but note that this is for Council’s information, not approval.
Council Involvement in Policy Development
In future, Council members will not be members of the policy committees by virtue of their appointment to Council. Council members may wish to contribute to the policy process and can do so as individual members of InternetNZ, or as specifically appointed members of the policy committee/s in their own right.
InternetNZ Council may choose to have a Standing Committee that identifies the key strategic and emerging issues for NZ – its role will be to provide input into the Annual Statements of Expectations for the business units. It will not be to undertake any advocacy or policy development work.
Recommendations
It is recommended that Council:
(a) approve the policy accountabilities set out in the paper above
(b) agree that each business unit should have a documented public policy development process approved by the InternetNZ Council
(c) approve the key principles to be followed in the public policy development process.
