First, why did National's leader take the tech portfolio, which on the Government side, is held by the demoted David Clark?
There was a gap after EV charging entrepreneur and first-time candidate Jake Bezzant - seen by some as a natural for the role - lost the blue-ribbon Upper Harbour seat amid controversy about his CV, and a big pandemic swing to Labour that probably put paid to his chances regardless.
But why Collins to fill the breach?
"It's a really good question, because I'm not the natural person that you think of," Collins says.
"My son became a software developer and it really opened my eyes to a lot of this, and how absolutely crucial technology is for us to grow the economy, productivity and get incomes up higher.
"The other thing is that I grew up on a farm, and people might say, 'Well, what's that got to do with technology?'
"But when you look at how New Zealand's such an agricultural giant, from the bottom of the world - the answer is technology. Over the years the agricultural sector has had an absolute commitment to science and technology. And that's one of the reasons that farming keeps improving
"And this is also a way for us to deal with things like the climate change, and meeting our environmental obligations without actually killing an industry. So to me, that is a really smart place for us to be a champion."
In keeping with this theme, National's online discussion included a contribution from AgriTech NZ chief executive Brendan O'Connell.
O'Connell said while agritech was already making our primary industries more efficient, and helping to address sustainability issues at home, there was still scope for making our agritech an export in itself. Countries like Israel and the Netherlands were ahead in terms of making hay from their agritech IP, he said.
O'Connell said while there had been a rise of venture capital investment in NZ, and new VC firms specialising in agritech, the VC model did not suit all. New Zealand has a large pool of early-stage agritech companies, but more work needs to be done on how they can access a diversity of capital, O'Connell said, so they can join giants like Gallagher Group.
The headliner was Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck - a member of the Prime Minister's economic advisory group who has found the pandemic a lost opportunity to reshape our economy, and whose company, while surging on the Nasdaq, has had its immediate hiring and launch progress crimped by border restrictions.
"Right now today, the tech sector in New Zealand is raging," Beck said, in a reference to a record amount of capital raising during the pandemic.
"I have a lot to do with the venture capital, it's the best I've ever seen it, and funding a lot of startups. And I have to say that the quality and quantity of startups in New Zealand right now is the best I've ever seen it."
He added, "Fundamentally as Kiwis, we are good at tech. But we also have to acknowledge that we're a small country, and we need to bring the best here as well.
"We need to create environments where people can think and go big. And when our tech companies are successful, we also have to be cognizant that when they need to go global. And when they go global, we should celebrate that and not lament that we lost another New Zealand company."
Trading places
Over the past decade and a half, technology has been something of a topsy-turvey portfolio, with National out-intervening Labour as it extended David Cunliffe's operational separation of Telecom to a cleaving-in-two into Spark and Chorus, and Labour's hundreds of millions in broadband infrastructure was upgraded to billions as Steven Joyce launched the public-private initiatives of the Ultrafast Broadband (UFB rollout) and its sister PPP the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI).
And while Helen Clark's government introduced a tax-break for R&D, National abolished it in favour of direct grants through Crown agency Callaghan Innovation - an approach that Sam Morgan derided as the government picking winners (the Callaghan grants were sunsetted and the R&D tax break restored by the Labour-led government elected in 2017).
On Wednesday morning, Collins lauded the UFB, but also said, "It never quite got finished. And we still have people in rural New Zealand and not-so-rural New Zealand, who do not have good enough technology and connectivity for working in the modern way."
She added, "For example, in Queenstown, and around that area, there are some highly qualified and very experienced people who have been working overseas, particularly in the tech sector, and who have come back to New Zealand who would really love to create a mini Silicon Valley."
On cue, Queenstown resident Geraldine McBride - who left NZ and ultimately gained executive roles at SAP and Dell in the US before returning home, where she's now investing in MyWave and other startups - appeared in National's online discussion lineup (like Beck, McBride eschewed any overtly political comment in favour of stressing the importance of the tech sector in growing NZ's economy).
How will it play with Act?
Technology is the first of eight sectors where National will hold sounding-out events with industry, and regular punters as part of its "Big Fixes" initiative.
Although it's still at its formative stages, Collins says it will likely build on elements of the party's 2020 tech policy platform.
There was little daylight between National and Labour's tech agendas going into the last election, and neither party had anything to say on a number of key areas including cyber-security.
But National did offer scholarships to boost tech training and another $1 billion for broadband infrastructure.
And National's tech policy for the next election is still in progress, Collins' supportive comments this morning on the UFB and addressing the tech skills shortage indicate her party still favours more spending on the tech sector, in Joyce's previous mould a strategic state intervention in the short term for long-term private sector gain.
But when John Key's government introduced the legislation that enabled the UFB, a number of Act MPs campaigned against it.
Are there any tech policies that Collins would regard as non-negotiable if, after the next election, it is in a position to enter coalition talks with the high-flying Act to form the next government?
"I presume that any party that comes into government would understand that tech is a priority, just as governments like to build roads," Collins says.
"But this is more important, because it actually affects every piece of productivity. If we want to grow the economy, or grow the ability for us to have better healthcare or better education services, the only way I can see is through technology."
Exactly how, and whether it's to David Seymour's liking, we'll see at some point after National's tech summit in the new year.
