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The department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet operates at the centre of New Zealand’s government processes to provide professional advice and support to the Prime Minister and Cabinet and, through the Clerk of the Executive Council and Government House, to the Governor-General. The department forms a small element of the core public service; and staff are required to serve the Prime Minister and the Government of the day in an impartial, responsible, and trustworthy manner.
Our responsibility is to serve – along with other agencies in the public sector – the elected Government of the day to the best of our abilities, in a neutral and professional manner and through the provision of free and frank advice, in order to assist the Government in taking forward its policy programme.
DPMC’s particular function is to support the effective conduct of New Zealand’s executive government, being the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, other Ministers and the public service. We do that through the provision of quality advice, through exercising leadership in matters of interest to the Prime Minister; through coordinating efforts across government and the public service in support of Ministers’ priorities, and through extending a variety of forms of support to members of the executive so that they can effectively discharge their roles.
In serving the Prime Minister, we provide advice on all issues of interest, along with administrative and secretariat support for the conduct of Cabinet business. Our support for the Cabinet and its committee processes has broadened somewhat under the new Prime Minister, and we need to ensure that the new processes are effective. DPMC also assesses and manages domestic and external security risks (including intelligence) and coordinates responses to major incidents. Another of its functions is to interpret developments in the outside world for New Zealand, drawing on open-source and classified material. A further range of advice and support is provided to Their Excellencies the Governor-General and Lady Satyanand as they execute their roles.
An important part of DPMC’s role, shared with the Treasury and the State Services Commission, is to bring the whole government system together so that it is more effective in securing the outcomes and delivering the services the Government of the day seeks. We have a special responsibility for driving cross-agency alignment, removing “road blocks”, and pursuing broader initiatives that involve several agencies or external players.
Over the coming period, we will work to ensure that our efforts reflect the needs and policy priorities of the Government elected in November 2008 and assist the Prime Minister and Ministers in driving forward their policy priorities. We expect to build on the initiatives taken during the 100-day Action Plan, and those that arose from the Prime Minister’s Summit on Employment held on 27 February in Manukau City.
We will also be giving priority to helping agencies support their Ministers in dealing with the economic crisis and its financial impacts – including its impact on the delivery of the government’s services to New Zealanders. We expect to continue to work very closely with the Treasury and the State Services Commission in managing these difficult economic times and in determining how the public service and wider public sector can best organise itself to meet the changed circumstances.
The senior leadership team in DPMC continues to provide me with strong support. Our challenge remains to build stronger whole-of-department effectiveness across our small and rather disparate units. We are committed to doing this. All managers – and staff – are well aware of the responsibilities entrusted to them in their various roles in support of the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, and Ministers. We will continue to work as effectively as we can to ensure that we provide the quality, service and timeliness of support that is expected of us.
Maarten Wevers
Chief Executive