TECH-SAVVY COUNTRY: Even though we use smart devices more and more, somehow it's as though we fail to see the forest for the trees.

The growing penetration of technology in our lives is common knowledge. It's been a gradual process that's been going on for years, but the pace is quickening every year.

And yet, when you consider the way our country is governed today, you'd be forgiven for thinking that parliament is like a microcosm of how life was 20-plus years ago.

No disrespect intended to the hard work our agricultural sector puts in year after year in flood, in snow and in drought, but maybe it's time somebody in parliament started considering a stabler alternative. Technology doesn't depend on the weather or consume egregious quantities of natural resources. The ongoing cost of exporting IT products in the software sector in particular is extremely minimal.

The potential for growth in the technology industry is limited only by one's imagination. Actually, I take that back - the technology industry will grow with or without New Zealand being prominent in its rise.

A detraction from technology is its tendency to fall between the cracks. Not only is technology not well-defined, but the moment that dictionaries and encyclopedias catch up there is another major evolution. It's not easy to pin down a simple notion of what technology should be either, and maybe that is a part of the cause of technology's lack of attention.

Look at it from another angle, though. What if we chose to embrace technology's evolution, rather than fight it? What if we chose to put our money where our mouth is and build better infrastructure to support technology, such as additional undersea fibre network cables?

We don't need to try to specialise in a particular form of technology either - its innate ability to adapt has already been mentioned - but we do need to stop stifling innovation by calling talented entrepeneurs like Kim Dotcom a threat to national security or certain organisations' bottom lines.

But does New Zealand need a Technology Party? If we don't, then we at least need a governing party that will develop policies to cultivate this sector of the economy. The way that we see governments on both sides of the political spectrum offering the bulk of major IT contracts to overseas companies, it makes you wonder if any party is interested in giving technology the chance it deserves.

Even though we use smart devices more and more, somehow it's as though we fail to see the forest for the trees.

I haven't yet heard a solitary substantive argument to bring the idea down. But rather than wait to be trodden on, why don't we start one and see where it goes?