Formed 1840 | Jurisdiction New Zealand | |
Preceding agency Colonial Secretary's Office Headquarters 46 Waring Taylor St,
Wellington
WELLINGTON 6011 Annual budget Vote Internal Affairs
Total budget for 2016/17
$593,323,000 Minister responsible Hon Peter Dunne,
Minister of Internal Affairs | ||
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.
Contents
- History
- Related organisations
- Ministers
- List of Ministers of Internal Affairs
- Invitation to Present Commercial Opportunities
- References
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. Library and Archives stakeholders expressed serious concerns about the changes proposed. On 1 February 2011, both were brought into the Department of Internal Affairs.
History
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.
Related organisations
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:
Ministers
The Department serves 6 portfolios and 7 ministers.
List of Ministers of Internal Affairs
The following persons have served as the New Zealand Minister of Internal Affairs since the Department of Internal Affairs replaced the Colonial Secretary's office from 19 November 1907.
Invitation to Present Commercial Opportunities
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.
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: