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Catalyst launches Election Manifesto 2026 to unleash New Zealand’s world-class sovereign tech

MEDIA RELEASE 14 July 2026: Catalyst, New Zealand’s leading open-source technology provider, today challenged the incoming government with a comprehensive policy agenda to break the country’s dependency on offshore Big Tech.

Read the media release

Catalyst in the media

Open, sovereign, built to last: How one local IT shop would like to see NZ’s tech systems

Author: Dita De Boni
"New Zealand's largest local open-source software and IT consultancy has issued a “manifesto” which sets out a roadmap for fixing what it calls over-budget, under-delivered Government IT that is overly reliant on large global tech...

Read the article on The Post

Catalyst launches Election Manifesto 2026 to unleash New Zealand’s world-class sovereign tech

MEDIA RELEASE 14 July 2026: Catalyst, New Zealand’s leading open-source technology provider, today challenged the incoming government with a comprehensive policy agenda to break the country’s dependency on offshore Big Tech.

Read the media release

Puanga–Matariki Insights Series 2026 - New Framework Explores How IMPBs Can Protect Whānau Voice and Strengthen Māori Data Sovereignty

MEDIA RELEASE: "The framework was developed by Nicholson Consulting and Catalyst IT in partnership with Āti Awa Toa Hauora Partnership Board and Manatū Hauora. It is intended as a starting point for discussion and future collaboration across IMPBs...

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Data centre push: Growth or 'nuts'?

Author: Chris Keall
"Local industry advocate Don Christie says big tech firms operating in New Zealand send most of their revenue and profit offshore to lower-tax countries...

Read the article on the Gisborne Herald

Exporting Electrons

Author: Chris Keall
"Christie added, "We could be world-leading in this space [artificial intelligence] if we invest in start-up businesses that can be the equivalent of Rocket Lab, but in the AI space...

Read the article on the Weekend Herald

"An American issue": Tech NZ aims to dispel fears around building new data centres

Host: Mike Hosking
"Invest New Zealand claims the centres could employ up to three and a half thousand people, but local industry advocate Don Christie says the centres are largely automated and only employ a few people....

Learn more on Newstalk ZB

Crown agency pushes for $30 billion investment in new data centres

Author: Chris Keall
"Local industry advocate Don Christie says big tech firms operating in NZ send most of their revenue and profit offshore to lower-tax countries. He also argues that hyperscale data centres are largely automated and...

Read the article on NZ Herald

Catalyst urges New Zealand to back local tech in procurement

Author: Joseph Gabriel Lagonsin
"Catalyst has urged the New Zealand Government to prioritise local technology providers in public procurement, as it announces investment to upgrade its own technology infrastructure.

Read the full article

Too much legacy spaghetti, not enough bread and butter policy

Opinion piece: Sarah Ellison
"The real issue facing our public sector isn't just an unmanageable headcount problem; it is a clarity problem. By defaulting to international tech behemoths under the guise of efficiency, we are failing to leverage...

Read the article on The Post

New Zealand's digital infrastructure should not be run by single tech giant, open-source tech firm warns

Author: Nona Pelletier
"In an era where digital sovereignty and economic resilience are inseparable, our default government procurement model should change," Catalyst managing director Don Christie said." New Zealand should look to open source...

Read the full article on RNZ

Māori Text-to-Speech Model Spurns Big Tech’s Values: Several projects around the world are working to develop indigenous-owned AI models

Author: Laurie Winkless
"Keegan found a Wellington-based company, Catalyst IT, that gifted website hosting and the computing power needed to run the voice model for a year. Data sovereignty is a rapidly growing focus in indigenous AI communities....

Read the full article on IEEE Spectrum

What tech we build matters - but how the state supports it matters more

Opinion piece: Don Christie, The Post
"We don't have to get it perfectly right today; we just need to get moving. Legislators must ask whether our systems create choice, because when we have choice, we have resilience and more opportunity to innovate."..

Read the article on The Post

Canterbury University escapes global hack by shopping locally

Author: Fox Meyer, Newsroom
"Sam Lewis, Catalyst’s general manager of learning solutions, tells Newsroom the company directly supports four New Zealand universities, though each takes a different approach to using Moodle."

Read the full article at Newsroom

New Zealand’s data centre boom has delivered fewer jobs than a small accounting firm

Author: B2B News
"New Zealand needs digital infrastructure. But it also needs to stop confusing announcements with outcomes. When the permanent job count across three flagship projects fits in a single office floor, the question isn’t whether data....

Read the full article on B2B news

Digital oligarchy: Can US tech giants override NZ sovereignty?

Author: Rob Stock
"People are always in control of our AI systems, which we design to benefit people and minimise harm," Catalyst says. "If an AI system's decisions can have adverse impacts on people, there must be staff who can review and overide those

Read the full article on The Post

The case for NZ front-footing big tech and AI regulation

Author: Will Mace, NBR
"[Don] Christie argued that economic sovereignty can not truly exist without digital sovereignty, particularly at a time when the United States government is using every piece of leverage in its trade and foreign policy arsenal.:..

Read the full article on NBR

NZ launches $13bn public-sector IT overhaul

Author: Nicole Valdez
"Don Christie, co-founder of Catalyst IT, argues that smaller, modular projects will reduce risk and foster competition.... Christie believes open-source software could deliver even greater savings than Collins’ estimates...

Read the full article on B2B News

Billions on the line in Judith Collins’ digital government reboot

Author: Tom Pullar-Strecker, The Post
"If the Government did follow through on the mindset laid out in the Cabinet paper, Catalyst and other Kiwi firms specialising in open source development would help them save “much, much more” than 30%..."

Read the full article on The Post

The Education fix Aotearoa needs is already here

Author: NZ Herald. Opinion piece by Don Christie
"Education technology must be fit for purpose and built for the future. It is critical that teachers and tamariki alike can access tools that are cost effective, adaptable and centred on what works for New

Read the full article on NZ Herald

Local cloud storage competitor sceptical of Amazon's data centre claims

Author: Kathryn Ryan, Nine To Noon
"At yesterday's announcement, attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Amazon said the data centres are 'now live', but was unwilling to say where they are - apparently for security reasons. Don Christie is..."

Listen to the episode

Amazon gives up building its own Auckland data centre, as power prices soar

Author: Jonathan Milne
"Christie says Amazon has simply installed its technology at data centres built by other firms – including Infratil-owned hyperscaler CDC. “How hard do you think it is to drop a few racks in a data centre and run what Amazon..."

Read the article

Sovereign or sidelined? The case for Kiwi-controlled AI

Author: Peter Griffin, Business Desk
Donald Christie says, "The technologies are there. You don’t have to build it from scratch. We’ve done this with Linux. We’ve done this with OpenStack in the cloud space. And as open-source models begin to mature ...

Listen to the podcast episode

Tech giant Amazon’s $7.5b NZ data centre plan quietly put on hold

Author: Jonathan Milne
“....Don Christie says without a timetable to open the data centres, he questions whether the New Zealand Government and other customers can trust Amazon’s ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Early Childhood Australia helps thousands of members support childhood education and care with custom Moodle plugin by Catalyst IT

Author: Moodle
“Moodle Premium Certified Partner, Catalyst IT Australia, was invited to help ECA in their efforts. Using Moodle Workplace, Catalyst IT Australia endeavoured to enhance the effectiveness, usability, and cost and time efficiencies of ....

Read the full story on Moodle

Cyberattacks are constant and test even the best

Author: Peter Bale
"We could build capability in New Zealand to make this a far safer place. And this could again be under New Zealand’s control as opposed to having to rely on overseas actors.” ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

‘Nobody’s cracked it’ – Govt struggles to fix poor procurement

Author: Nikki Mandow
“There has been no fundamental shift in thinking or recognition that what Government calls a level playing field is actually skewed in favour of international companies. And there’s no agency reporting on any impact of applying ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

High speed answers for high risk events

Author: Tim Murphy
"Judges were impressed with [RiskScape's] ability “to harvest data to benefit so many communities on a national and global scale...“RiskScape is used to make better decisions driving impact from research and science with a sophisticate

Read the full article on Newsroom

Congratulations to our award winning RiskScape team

Author: GNS Science
This award is a well-deserved recognition of the impact that RiskScape makes in helping New Zealand to understand the risk of, and build resilience to, natural hazards. It’s the outcome of years of hard work across GNS, and with ....

Read the full story on GNS website

Head in the clouds? Call for NZ to take control of data storage

Author; Phil Pennington
"We often hear that there's a technical decision being made to choose an overseas service, and that it's above somebody's pay grade to consider the issues of data sovereignty and what happens to it," Christie told RNZ....

Read the full article on RNZ

New Zealand’s Only Local Cloud Provider Now Carbon-zero

Author: Catalyst Cloud
Catalyst Cloud’s net carbon zero certification is good news for the public sector with their requirement to be carbon neutral by 2025. It means government agencies now have a local government approved, carbon-zero cloud ....

Read the full article on Scoop

Open-source history: How NZ led a global e-learning revolution

Author: Don Christie
“Since 2003, we have repeatedly demonstrated the possibilities of open-source learning platforms – whether that means scaling to meet the demands of three million users in the Middle East or facilitating thousands of simultaneous ...

Read the full article on Newsroom

Are devices in school doing more harm than good?

Author: Niamh Avery
"Another benefit is that open source projects feature public code that can be modified by anyone, thus allowing young people to use their skills to make a genuine difference in the world...

Read the full article on Newsroom

NZ's Catalyst IT delivers open-source system for uni library

Author: Ben Moore
"...AUT project manager Craig Murdoch said of this project, "We see the team at Catalyst as partners rather than vendors, and their commitment, skills and genuine approach meant our implementation was a real pleasure...

Read the full story on Connecting the Australian Channel

Exciting new platform for library services

Author: Fire and Emergency NZ
"It's an exciting time for the Te Ao Mārama team. Koha is intuitive, provides access to a wide range of resources and will improve user experience significantly," says Maki Tumu, Coordinator Te Ao Mārama, Strategy and Perfor

Read the full story on Fire and Emergency NZ

Christie makes case for technology sovereignty

Author: Bill Bennett
“…there are other approaches. Ones that involve paying taxes that provide for schools and hospitals, keeping data onshore and respecting te ao Māori, acknowledging the value of New Zealanders’ privacy, and building a resilient ....

Read the full story on Bill Bennett website

IT critical in national rebuild from Covid

Author: Don Christie
“How do we harness the potential – and mitigate the disruptive – impacts of transformative technology in the digital age? Catalyst’s view is that technological sovereignty is perhaps the defining issue of the decade.” ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Open source library software used worldwide

RNZ, Nine To Noon:
"Later this year, Wellington will host KohaCon - a conference celebrating 25 years of the open source software. Chris Cormack's worked on Koha since the beginning....

Listen to the Nine To Noon radio segment

The gaping holes in our cyber borders

Author: Marc Dalder
“Three reasons for New Zealand’s vulnerability in this arena? The fundamental architecture of the internet, which necessitates the overseas transfer of data even to reach a New Zealand-hosted and -domiciled webpage from within ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Catalyst Group achieves another Moodle Premium Certified Partner status with Catalyst IT Canada

Author: Moodle
“The Catalyst Group has had Moodle Certified Partner status since 2004 and was upgraded to Moodle Premium Partner in 2020. Catalyst was winner of The Moodle Project – Moodle Open Source Contributor Partner of The Year, 2019. Moodle is plea

Read the full story on Moodle

Opaque, inefficient, unfair: Govt's $42b procurement regime report card

Author: Nikki Mandow
“The government could and should be using its $42b-worth of procurement clout to support the New Zealand economy and help local businesses get the sort of scale they need to take on the international market....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Bet on Cloud Native like the TAB

Author: Don Christie
“Developing a roadmap for Cloud Native, irrespective of your starting point, will deliver immediate benefits, either in terms of crystalising your planning and strategy, or the sorts of tangible benefits above. ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

New system a big boost for dam safety

Author: David Williams
“Give us some complicated business problem and what we will do is break that down into components and develop you the platform you need to make the business run really sweetly.”

Read the full article on Newsroom

Sovereignty in a digital world – Part 3

“Think about Māori data and look at the health and social outcomes of minorities within the minority. Then you’re in an even worse position. And this is why, for Māori, data sovereignty, the use of health data, the type of knowledge system, are all ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Sovereignty in a digital world – Part 2

Author: Bernard Hickey
“Now sovereignty is all about which platform you get your information from, and run your business or school from, where it is hosted, what is written into the algorithms it uses and who is hacking into it. We have to negotiate ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

What sovereignty means in a digital world

Author: Bernard Hickey
“Catalyst IT CEO Don Christie believes the Government would be better off using local, open-source based platforms as the basis for communications to avoid becoming dependent on an unaccountable operation that may not have ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

The NZ company at the forefront of digital solutions to remote learning

Author: Katie Kenny
"New Zealand technology company Catalyst has been promoting online education platforms since the early 2000s, and is now helping educators around the world teach remotely in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "

Read the full story on Stuff

Catalyst supports Newsroom’s journalism

Author: Newsroom
“Catalyst has been a long-time and prominent player in our local IT landscape and a passionate advocate of what’s best for New Zealand,” Hickey says. “We know Catalyst is here for the long haul and ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Christchurch Call: Be brave, Prime Minister - big tech can be regulated

Author: Don Christie
Right now our Prime Minister is in Paris building an alliance of multinational tech companies and Governments to address how internet-based platforms are being used to radicalise and weaponise extremism.

Read the full article on NZ Herald

Smears and fury in big telescope lobbying

Author: Eloise GIbson
“AUT and tech companies such as Catalyst IT have been investing in preparatory work on the telescope for more than five years, spending millions on staff salaries and expenses. Their work has been partly ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

How to create safer roads for Kiwis

Author: Sean Mitchell
"The New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) partnered with Catalyst and Orbica to revolutionise CAS, the Crash Analysis System used by engineers, policy makers and researchers around New Zealand to make our roads safer."

Read the full story on CFO Tech

Open to the future of work

Author: Te Herenga Waka – Victory University of Wellington
“The conference took place against a backdrop of keynote speaker Finance Minister Grant Robertson announcing in his opening address terms of reference for the Productivity Commission’s inquiry in

Read the full article on Newsroom

Should NZ be part of the world's biggest science project?

Author: Business Desk
“Big data analytics firm Catalyst and parts of New Zealand’s tiny astronomy community are mounting a last-ditch effort to keep New Zealand a full member of what’s being hailed as the largest science project ever ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Christchurch Memories Preserved with New Red Zone App

Author: Scoop
"Catalyst – South Island, is proud to have partnered with the University of Canterbury Arts Digital Lab to develop the ‘Red Zone Stories’ application. This application will crowdsource and preserve the memories of the neighbourhood that wer

Learn more

Australia’s encryption law threatens NZ cloud data

Author: Richard MacManus
“There is a sense of cultural cringe about their drive to put New Zealand citizens’ data and processing on overseas platforms beyond the jurisdictional control of Kiwis,” Christie told me. “This will become a growing issue as ...

Read the full article on Newsroom

A New Look for UC QuakeStudies

Author: UC Arts Digital Lab
"The project to update the QuakeStudies online platform was undertaken by the UC Arts Digital Lab in collaboration with local open source technologists Catalyst IT. The new QuakeStudies platform, built on the Islandora...

Read the full story on Arts Digital Lab

Amazon vs NZ options in the cloud

Author: Richard McManus
While we’re waiting for the big US tech companies to decide whether to come here, it’s worth noting that New Zealand does have locally-based public clouds. The IT firm Catalyst has a service called Catalyst Cloud. ....

Read the full article on Newsroom

Global IT companies are taking profit here and putting nothing back

Author: Don Christie
“Money spent within local economies generates far higher tax revenues. A study by Economics New Zealand showed that $115,000 spent with our local IT services company generated a whopping $47,693 ....

Read the full article on NZ Herald

SmartStart: award-winning services for new parents

"DIA's SmartStart received a merit award in the Marketing, Advertising and Brand Communication category. The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) holds the Gold Quill Awards every year, and DIA was one of only three New Zealand agenc

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Treasury looks to improve the lives of NZers with open source data

Author: Catherine Knowles
"Catalyst's data centers are located in New Zealand so data can be accessed and downloaded faster than if it were hosted overseas. Catalyst says because this is New Zealand specific data, it's important not to send it offshore a

Read the full article

Half Moon Bay tech whiz Benjamin Denham graduates at 19

Author: Stuff
"During his studies Denham started an internship at Catalyst, an open source software company, where he developed an app for a major telecommunications company....."

Read the full article on Stuff

SmartStart: Engineered by Catalyst

Author: Scoop
Catalyst Director Don Christie says, “We’re incredibly proud of SmartStart.
“We worked closely with DIA to design and build exactly what they wanted."

Read the article

Social Investment Insights Tool – Powered by Catalyst

Author: Scoop
"The Social Investment Insights tool visualises complex data about children and youth living in different areas of New Zealand. Making this data accessible and understandable allows it to be used to help inform... services."

Read the full article

Online system for managing Cabinet decision making process

Author: Scoop
“CabNet provides for easier, secure access to Cabinet material for authorised users, reduces the time processing and disseminating papers and decisions, and delivers a single, authoritative electronic source of Cabinet information."

Read the full story

Disrupting The Cloud - OpenStack in NZ With Catalyst IT

Author: Alastair Thompson and Peter Kerr
"OpenStack is the world's fastest growing open source project. It enables you to run what amounts to a version of Amazon Web Services on a laptop. The same software is being used by....

Read the full article on Scoop

SCMP Website Wins Major Award

Author: Scoop
"The South China Morning Post website, built by Catalyst IT and launched in September this year, last night won a gold award at the prestigious Asian Digital Media Awards, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia."

Read the article

Catalyst notes shift in open source attitude

Author: Jazial Crossley
"South China Morning Post deputy digital director Ben Abbotts said the site Catalyst made was world class."Already, in the first few weeks, the site is significantly outperforming its predecessor; traffic has doubled overnight...

Read the full article on Stuff

Catalyst IT wins South China Morning Post contract

Author: Claire Rogers
"Wellington open source software firm Catalyst IT has won a seven-figure contract to develop the news website and supporting systems for the South China Morning Post...

Read the full article on Stuff