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The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) is one of the three central agencies responsible for coordinating and managing public sector performance. The others are the State Services Commission and the Treasury.
DPMC's overall area of responsibility is in helping to provide, at an administrative level, the “constitutional and institutional glue” that underlies our system of parliamentary democracy.
DPMC serves the Executive (the Governor-General, Prime Minister and Cabinet) through the provision of high quality impartial advice and support services which facilitate government decision making at both strategic and operational levels.
In addition to serving the Executive, a major role of DPMC is to help coordinate the work of the core public service departments and ministries – so that decision making takes account of all relevant viewpoints and is as coherent and complete as possible.
The Prime Minister is the political leader of the government and the country - and has the most visible profile of any government minister. The Prime Minister is also the chair of Cabinet, and is responsible for the effective operation of collective government. These twin roles combine political and executive responsibilites. DPMC has explicit responsibility for promoting coordination across the public service and provides three kinds of direct support to the Prime Minister.
The first of these key areas of support is for issues that are the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister; constitutional issues relating to the conduct of executive government - including the formation of government and transitions between administrations; and issues associated with the operation of the Cabinet system.
Secondly, continuing support is provided on current issues across the range of government business. As the political head of the government, the Prime Minister must have an overview of government activity and access to information on any and all issues that arise. DPMC works with the rest of the public service to achieve this, coordinating activity where necessary - for example, working with the other central agencies and with key departments to ensure the government's three priority themes (economic transformation; families - young and old; and national identity) are supported.
Thirdly, DPMC provides administrative support to the Prime Minister (and also to the Governor-General). This includes services to the Prime Minister – such as preparing replies to Parliamentary questions, and dealing with Official Information Act requests and other correspondence. In many cases this involves working directly with other agencies as the Prime Minister's role takes her across all areas of government business.
A totally separate body, the Office of the Prime Minister, also advises the Prime Minister and is the primary point of responsibility for coalition management.
DPMC also supports the Governor-General in carrying out his functions. New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy. This means that the Queen is Head of State of New Zealand, but her powers and those of her representative, the Governor-General, are almost always exercised only on the advice of ministers and the government. The Governor-General is, therefore, a significant figure in the constitutional framework, with important constitutional, ceremonial, and community roles that together build and foster our national identity and unity.
A great deal of DPMC's activities focus on facilitating government decision making at a strategic and operational level. To achieve this, DPMC relies on close relationships with other departments and agencies and - depending on the issue - on local government, industry and the community.
The overall outcome that DPMC - in conjunction with other agencies - seeks to achieve is:
Good Government, with effective Public Service Support
In achieving this outcome, DPMC has adopted five contributing outcomes that reflect the department’s key streams of work:
The diversity of work contributing to these outcomes is indicative of DPMC's history, structure and the roles of each business unit.
DPMC formally came into existence on 1 January 1990, as a result of a report which recommended establishing structures to provide two separate streams of advice to the Prime Minister; one, a new government department to supply impartial, high quality advice and support to the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), and another, a Prime Minister's Private Office (which is not part of DPMC), to provide personal support and media services, and advice of a party political nature.
Government House was included in the scope of the department in August 1990, after a review of the Governor-General’s support requirements. The External Assessments Bureau became part of DPMC on 1 July 1991.
DPMC is comprised of six business units headed by the Chief Executive, Maarten Wevers.
External Assessments Bureau (EAB):
Domestic and External Security Group (DESG):
Two additional features of the way DPMC is organised are the sometimes sizeable numbers of staff who are seconded from other government departments or outside organisations to work here on a specific project, at the completion of which they depart. DPMC is also commonly called upon to establish Special Units, task forces or reviews which provide advice on a particular issue (or issues) over a finite length of time.