Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand)

Department of Internal Affairs
Te Tari Taiwhenua

Agency overview
Formed	1840
Preceding agency	Colonial Secretary's Office
Jurisdiction	New Zealand
Headquarters	46 Waring Taylor St, Wellington WELLINGTON 6011 41°16′55″S 174°46′35″E / 41.281821°S 174.776408°E / -41.281821; 174.776408
Annual budget	Vote Internal Affairs Total budget for 2017/18 $689,988,000[1]
Minister responsible	Hon Tracey Martin, Minister of Internal Affairs
Agency executive	Colin MacDonald, Chief Executive and Secretary for Internal Affairs Secretary for Local Government Government Chief Information Officer
Child agencies	Archives New Zealand New Zealand Lottery Grants Board Local Government Commission National Library of New Zealand Office for the Community & Voluntary Sector Office of Ethnic Affairs
Website	www.dia.govt.nz

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA; Māori: Te Tari Taiwhenua) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with issuing passports; administering applications for citizenship and lottery grants; enforcing censorship and gambling laws; registering births, deaths, marriages and civil unions; supplying support services to Ministers of the Crown; and advising the government on a range of relevant policies and issues, part of a number of functions performed by Internal Affairs.

Other services provided by the Department include a translation service, publication of the New Zealand Gazette (the official newspaper of the New Zealand Government), a flag hire service, management of VIP visits to New Zealand, running the Lake Taupo harbourmaster's office (under a special agreement with the local iwi) and the administration of offshore islands.

During the late 1990s both the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand were separated from the Department along with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. On 25 March 2010, the former Minister of State Services Tony Ryall announced that the Library and Archives would be merged into the Department.^[2] Library and Archives stakeholders expressed serious concerns about the changes proposed.^[3] On 1 February 2011, both were brought into the Department of Internal Affairs.^[4]

History[edit]

The Department of Internal Affairs traces its roots back to the Colonial Secretary's Office, which from the time New Zealand became a British colony, in 1840, was responsible for almost all central Government duties. The Department was the first government department to be established in New Zealand, and it became the home for a diverse range of government functions providing services to New Zealanders and advice to Ministers of the Crown. Hence the title of Michael Bassett's 1997 history of the department: The Mother of All Departments.

Many of these responsibilities were lost as new departments and ministries were formed. The office's name was changed to the Department of Internal Affairs from 19 November 1907. Change has continued to the present day, as new roles and functions have come into the Department and others have been transferred elsewhere.^[5]

Related organisations[edit]

The Department of Internal Affairs includes the Office of Ethnic Affairs, which provides information to ethnic communities and policy advice to the government and the Local Government Commission, which makes decisions on the structure and representation requirements of local government. The Department's present activities also include the implementation of recent dog control and local government legislation.

The Department has responsibility for supporting the community and voluntary sector through the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector.

The Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs is also the Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO), with responsibility for developing and overseeing the government's ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) strategy and providing strategic advice on related matters. The Department also includes the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Māturanga o Aotearoa and Archives New Zealand, Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga. These two organisations were integrated into the Department on 1 February 2011

The Department provides secretariat support for several entities including:

• The Gambling Commission
• The Local Government Commission
• Commissions of Inquiry and ad hoc bodies such as the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine tragedy and the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission.
• The Library and Information Advisory Commission, Ngā Kaiwhakamārama i ngā Kohikohinga Kōrero
• The Public Lending Right Advisory Group
• The Guardians Kaitiaki of the Alexander Turnbull Library
• The Archives Council
• The Film and Literature Board of Review
• The Confidential Listening and Assistance Service

Ministers[edit]

The Department serves 6 portfolios, 7 ministers and a parliamentary under-secretary.^[6]

List of Ministers of Internal Affairs[edit]

The following persons have served as the New Zealand Minister of Internal Affairs^[7] since the Department of Internal Affairs replaced the Colonial Secretary's office from 19 November 1907.

No.		Name	Portrait	Term of Office		Prime Minister
	1	John Findlay		1907	1909		Ward
	2	David Buddo		1909	1912
	3	George Warren Russell		1912	1912		Mackenzie
	4	Francis Bell[8]		1912	1914		Massey
	(3)	George Warren Russell		1914	1919
	5	John Bird Hine		1919	1920
	6	George James Anderson		1920	1921
	7	William Downie Stewart, Jr.		1921	1923
	8	Richard Bollard		1923	1927
							Bell
							Coates
	9	Māui Pōmare[9]		1927	1928
	10	Philip De La Perrelle[10]		1928	1931		Ward
							Forbes
	11	Adam Hamilton		1931	1933
	12	Alexander Young		1933	1935
	13	Bill Parry[11]		1935	1949		Savage
							Fraser
	14	William Bodkin[12]		13 December 1949	26 November 1954		Holland
	15	Sidney Walter Smith		26 November 1954	12 December 1957
							Holyoake
	16	Bill Anderton		12 December 1957	12 December 1960		Nash
	17	Leon Götz		12 December 1960	1963		Holyoake
	18	David Seath		1963	1972
	19	Allan Highet		1972	8 December 1972		Marshall
	20	Henry May		25 November 1972	29 November 1975		Kirk
							Rowling
	(19)	Allan Highet		1975	1984		Muldoon
	21	Peter Tapsell		1984	1987		Lange
	22	Michael Bassett		1987	1990
							Palmer
	23	Margaret Austin[13]		1990	1990
							Moore
	24	Graeme Lee		1990	1993		Bolger
	25	Warren Cooper[14]		1993	1996
	26	Peter Dunne		1996	1996
	27	Jack Elder		1996	1999
							Shipley
	28	Mark Burton		1999	2000		Clark
	29	George Hawkins		2000	2005
	30	Rick Barker		2005	2008
	31	Richard Worth		2008	2009		Key
	32	Nathan Guy[15]		2009	2011
	33	Amy Adams[16]		2011	2012
	34	Chris Tremain		2012	2014
	(26)	Peter Dunne[17]		2014	26 October 2017
							English
	35	Tracey Martin		26 October 2017	present		Ardern

Invitation to Present Commercial Opportunities[edit]

An invitation to present commercial opportunities (IPCO) is a process designed by the department to invite the private sector to present ideas for commercial relationships with government in relation to services already built/created by the government agency. The commercial relationships can include a public-private partnership or other arrangement between the private sector and the government to further develop, fund, innovate, distribute, and ensure uptake and use of the services.^[18]

An IPCO is issued where a government is seeking options that provide it access to private sector specialised expertise, innovative ideas, and funding and the sharing of risk. Extending the reach of the services, while building on the benefits of established branding and related market penetration are also important.

An IPCO is not a procurement process for goods or services, and it does not signal whether any final decision has been made on any future procurement process or any other action will be taken by government. It is intended to enable government to gauge whether there are organisations interested in, and what options are available for, public-private partnerships or other commercial arrangements to use and/or further develop, fund, innovate, distribute, and ensure uptake and use of a government agency’s services by the public, government agencies and the private sector.

The IPCO process was developed in August 2009 to assist with collecting information from the private sector to use in advising government on future development and funding options for particular services. The IPCO has been used for two electronic identity services the New Zealand Government has built for government use to provide identity dependent services online. The two services are called the igovt logon service and the igovt identity verification service (igovt services). Government directed the Department of Internal Affairs to invite the market to provide written responses about whether private sector organisations were interested in:

• using the igovt services if available to them, and
• entering into public-private partnerships or other arrangements for the further development, funding, innovation, distribution, and ensuring uptake and use of the igovt services.

See also[edit]

• New Zealand Birth Certificate
• Censorship in New Zealand
• Gambling in New Zealand
• Five Nations Passport Group

Bibliography[edit]

• Bassett, Michael The Mother of All Departments (1997, Auckland University Press, Auckland) ISBN 1-86940-175-1

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Local Government Commission
• Ministry of Civil Defence
• Office of Ethnic Affairs