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1. Our year in review

He tirohanga arotake ki te tau kua hipa

In this section:

Secretary for Internal Affairs’ foreword

Highlights

Feature story

Nature and scope of our functions

 

 

 

 

 

Secretary for Internal Affairs’ foreword

Tēnā tātou
Waerea te huarahi pai
Waerea te ara tika
Whāia te hīnātore kia mārama
Kia whai take ngā mahi katoa
Tuia kia ōrite, Tuia kia mana
Hui te ora, Hui te mārama
Hui e, Tāiki e

The Department of Internal Affairs touches the lives of all New Zealanders. I am proud to present this report and the stories of how we have improved the lives of New Zealanders over the last year.

The 2023 General Election saw a change of government. The transition required significant work by our Ministerial Services staff, who provide services to the Prime Minister and the Executive.

Preparing for the 54th Executive was a months-long programme of work and is one of the important roles we play to ensure New Zealand is a well-functioning democracy.

We met the Government’s call for public sector efficiency by reducing our baseline by 7 percent. While some services have been scaled back or stopped the Department continues to deliver high quality, efficient and responsive services while managing costs effectively. We are focused on our core business and key priorities and are open to doing things differently: this is how we will remain high performing, trusted and continue to deliver services to New Zealanders.

Local Water Done Well is the Government’s plan to address New Zealand’s water services infrastructure challenges. The plan recognises the importance of local decision-making and flexibility for communities and councils to determine how water services will be delivered in the future.

Through the new Digitising Government portfolio, we support the Minister for Digitising Government with delivery of the Government’s digital strategy, digital services delivery, and more.

Te Ara Manaaki, our programme to modernise how people access life and identity services, progressed significant changes this year. Some updates had adverse impacts on passport processing timeframes, which we are making good progress resolving.

The new online portal makes it quicker, easier and convenient for New Zealanders to apply for their passport.

We worked alongside Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne councils to secure funding to clean up sediment and mdebris following Cyclone Gabrielle. This has allowed communities to get stuck in with the recovery work, leading to the clearance of over 3.5 million cubic metres of silt and woody debris to date.

Whanaketia – the final report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions was published in June 2024, with administrative support from the Department. Launched in 2018, the inquiry heard from over 3,000 survivors who demonstrated great courage throughout, and is the longest and largest Royal Commission in New Zealand’s history.

The new archival building in Wellington reached significant milestones and is on-track to provide a state-of-the-art archives repository for Archives New Zealand, the National Library of New Zealand and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.

This year for the first time since the Treaty settlement process commenced over 30 years ago, we report on progress towards our Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi claims settlement commitments.

The Department remains a high-performing organisation that New Zealanders trust. This is only possible because of our dedicated team of public servants, who I would like to thank for their work over the past 12 months.

Included in this Annual Report is reporting for the Ministry for Ethnic Communities and the Digital Executive Board, which are included in Vote Internal Affairs.

Ngā mihi nui

Paul James
Secretary for Internal Affairs, Secretary for Local Government,
Government Chief Digital Officer, Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs

 

Highlights - Ngā tīpako

Supported the transition to the 54th Executive after the 2023 General Election, helping to ensure New Zealand is a well-functioning democracy

 

Released guidance for public service agencies to use Artificial Intelligence in a safe and responsible way

 

Improved how people access identity and life event services such as passports and citizenship by completing the biggest set of process and technology changes in over a decade. Over 90 percent of applications for life and identity services are now digital

 

Supported the Government to develop and implement a framework for the transition to financially sustainable water services under Local Water Done Well

 

Applied to the Gambling Commission to suspend New Zealand’s largest casino operator’s licence as we uncovered significant breaches of licence obligations. The operator has volunteered to close their gambling area for five consecutive days, which is an unprecedented move

 

Worked with Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne councils to secure funding to clean up sediment and debris following Cyclone Gabrielle

 

Assisted the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions in their work to produce their final report

 

Completed over 10,000 advisory services and processed over 6,000 grants for communities, hāpu and iwi across New Zealand

 

Established the Trust Framework Authority as the new regulator for accrediting digital identity services in New Zealand

 

Blocked over 1 million attempts to access harmful digital content online

 

Translated 5 million words and 8,973 official documents.

 

Feature story

 

Nature and scope of our functions

Te āhua me te momo o ā mātau mahi

Our purpose – Tō Tātou Whāinga

Our purpose remains consistent, even as the functions and services we perform evolve to meet the changing needs and expectations of New Zealanders and the Government.

We work with people, communities, and government – both central and local – to make New Zealand better for New Zealanders.

Our Ministerial Portfolios

We are responsible to six Ministers, administering six portfolios within Vote Internal Affairs. The Ministry for Ethnic Communities, a departmental agency hosted by the Department, also administers one portfolio and is responsible to one Minister.

The Minister of Internal Affairs is the Vote Minister and the responsible Minister overseeing the Government’s ownership interests in Internal Affairs. The portfolios and responsible Ministers as at 30 June 2024 were:

Department of Internal Affairs
Internal Affairs	Hon Brooke van Velden
Ministerial Services	Rt Hon Christopher Luxon
Racing	Rt Hon Winston Peters
Local Government	Hon Simeon Brown
Community and Voluntary Sector	Hon Louise Upston
Digitising Government	Hon Judith Collins KC
Ministry for Ethnic Communities
Ethnic Communities	Hon Melissa Lee

 

We have a broad range of responsibilities and functions that include working with communities, ensuring effective regulatory frameworks are in place, and supporting the Executive and local government. We invest in information and communications technologies (ICT) and information management, and deliver a range of services to support and foster New Zealand’s cultural identity.

Our wider functions

• Managing and protecting the integrity of national identity information. This includes life events such as births, deaths and marriages, citizenship and issuing passports
• Regulating activities in several sectors including: gambling, online child exploitation and countering violent extremism. We also regulate government record-keeping, charities, unsolicited electronic messages, anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism, private security personnel and private investigators
• Providing policy advice to the Government on: local government, the community and voluntary sector, fire and emergency services, identity, ICT, information management, digital safety, gambling and racing
• Providing information, resources and advice to communities to support their aspirations
• Administering grant funding schemes, as well as promoting trust and confidence in the charitable sector
• Supporting Ministers to ensure the Executive Government operates efficiently and effectively. This includes providing 'Very Important Person' (VIP) transport services for members of the Executive Government and other VIPs and dignitaries
• Coordinating and managing official Guest of Government visits to New Zealand, and arranging national commemorative events
• Advising on, establishing and supporting the operation of public and government inquiries and reviews, including Royal Commissions of Inquiry
• Administering a range of statutory functions for the Minister of Local Government, including for Lake Taupō and offshore islands
• Leadership of the overall strategy and direction for the Government's digital modernisation and digital service delivery

Our responsibilities

The Department has administrative responsibility for approximately 50 Acts (plus an additional 62 historic Local Legislation Acts) and about 120 pieces of secondary legislation. We also have functional regulatory roles or share responsibility under six other pieces of legislation.

We monitor the performance of three Crown entities (Fire and Emergency New Zealand, the Office of Film and Literature Classification and The Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai). We also manage the appointment process for members of a range of trusts, committees and boards.

We support our public sector colleagues to transform their services through better investment in ICT and to maintain the privacy of New Zealanders’ government-held information. Our system leadership roles of Government Chief Digital Officer and the Government Chief Privacy Officer lead the digital transformation of government across the public sector. We also play a system leadership role for local government. We link central and local government more effectively to achieve improved outcomes for citizens and communities.

The Department is responsible for the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga. Both play an important role in preserving New Zealand’s documentary heritage and ensuring a full and accurate public record is created and maintained. In particular:

• The Chief Archivist has a system leadership and regulatory role in administering the Public Records Act 2005, which establishes the statutory framework for information and records management across the public sector
• The National Librarian has a system leadership role in the preservation, protection, development and accessibility of New Zealand’s documentary heritage.

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