Part one | Overview

Chief Executive’s Overview

Hon Nathan Guy became the Minister of Internal Affairs in June 2009 and, as a measure of the Government’s continued trust and confidence in the Department, made it a priority for us “to build capability to allow the Department to be the preferred home for selected government functions that require high-quality service delivery to people, communities and government”.

So the 2009/10 financial year began with a new Minister, and the transfer of Government Technology Services from the State Services Commission to Internal Affairs on 1 July 2009. It ended with preparations to integrate the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand into a new Department of Internal Affairs.

Change is not new to the Department. In fact it has almost become ‘business as usual’. However, the Government’s decision to integrate the three agencies, announced in March 2010, will require change on a scale the Department has not yet experienced.

As I said to staff soon after the announcement, it is not possible to simply add on significant new functions to the existing structure without impacting the ability to manage and govern the organisation and maintain standards of service. The integration will require a restructure of the Department, with changes to the existing business groups and to the Executive Leadership Team. Therefore, the last quarter of 2009/10 was necessarily focused on putting the infrastructure and processes in place to implement considerable changes in the coming year. These changes will enable us to give effect to the Minister’s priority in terms of building capability to take on additional functions in future.

The Department of Internal Affairs is an organisation with a long history of managing diverse functions and being flexible in the face of change, so despite the changing environment, throughout the last year we were able to maintain a strong focus on our core functions and deliver quality services to meet the needs of citizens, communities and government. We continued to identify ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our services, and maintained a strong focus on performance and productivity improvements in response to the Government’s continuing expectations of the public sector to deliver more and better services with fewer resources.

The ways in which we did this are outlined in the following pages. The contributions we have made to improving the quality of life in New Zealand are described in our outcomes – Strong, sustainable communities/hapū/iwi, Safer communities, and New Zealand’s approach to identity is trusted and well led, and in our objectives – Executive Government is well supported, and Common information and communications technology services deliver improved State sector performance and better citizen experience.

I am proud of the important work achieved by Internal Affairs employees in 2009/10, and appreciate the commitment, hard work and professionalism shown throughout what has, at times, been a tough and challenging year. It shows we are a strong organisation.

We are also an organisation with a proud history and an exciting future, and I look forward to leading the Department through the next phase of its life, as we work towards integrating with the National Library and Archives New Zealand.

This is the last Annual Report that will be produced for the organisation in its current form. Our 2010/11 Annual Report will be our first as a new, integrated Department and will reflect the contributions of our additional functions delivered under a new structure.

Brendan Boyle Chief Executive

Nature and Scope of Functions

as at 30 June 2010

The Department of Internal Affairs is responsible to six Ministers administering six Votes across seven ministerial portfolios. The Department also monitors the performance of three Crown entities. The following table summarises the outputs provided by the Department.

Hon Nathan Guy Minister of Internal Affairs Responsible Minister
VOTE/CROWN ENTITIES	OUTPUTS PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT
Vote Internal Affairs Crown Entities: New Zealand Fire Service Commission Office of Film and Literature Classification	Contestable services Government technology services Identity services Policy and advisory services Information and advisory services Policy advice Regulatory services Anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism
Rt Hon John Key Minister Responsible for Ministerial Affairs
VOTE/CROWN ENTITIES	OUTPUTS PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT
Vote Ministerial Services	Support services to Members of the Executive VIP transport Visits and official events coordination
Hon Pansy Wong Minister for Ethnic Affairs
VOTE/CROWN ENTITIES	OUTPUTS PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT
Part of Vote Internal Affairs – Services for Ethnic Affairs	Services for ethnic affairs
Hon John Carter Minister of Civil Defence
VOTE/CROWN ENTITIES	OUTPUTS PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT
Vote Emergency Management	Emergency management services, including: management of national emergency readiness, response and recovery policy advice on matters relating to emergency management support services, information and education
Minister for Racing
Vote Racing	Policy advice
Hon Tariana Turia Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector
VOTE/CROWN ENTITIES	OUTPUTS PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT
Vote Community and Voluntary Sector Crown Entity: Charities Commission	Community and voluntary sector services, including: administration of grants community advisory services policy advice
Hon Rodney Hide Minister of Local Government
VOTE/CROWN ENTITIES	OUTPUTS PROVIDED BY THE DEPARTMENT
Vote Local Government	Implementation of Auckland governance reforms Services for local government including: information, support and regulatory services policy advice on matters relating to local government

The Department also works with various portfolio-related statutory bodies, trusts and communities (for example, the Lottery Grants Board), providing them with advice, administrative support and management of the appointments process. In addition, we manage the appointments process for the 12 community trusts (Responsible Minister: Minister of Finance), the Peace and Disarmament Education Trust, and the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust (Responsible Minister: Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control), the Local Government Commission (Responsible Minister: Minister for Local Government), the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust (Responsible Minister: Minister for Ethnic Affairs), and the Gambling Commission (Responsible Minister: Minister of Internal Affairs).

The Minister of Internal Affairs is the Responsible Minister for the Department. The Responsible Minister oversees the Government’s ownership interest in the Department, which encompasses its strategy, capability, integrity and financial performance.