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The Governor-General is the representative of New Zealand’s Head of State, The Queen. The Governor-General’s important constitutional, ceremonial and community roles are interlinked and support one another in various ways.
The Governor-General’s constitutional duties ensure the continuity and legitimacy of government – such as summoning, suspending and dissolving Parliament; assenting to Bills; appointing ministers; and presiding over meetings of the Executive Council. In exercising the powers and functions of office, the Governor-General, like the Sovereign, acts on the advice of ministers. By convention, the Governor-General acts on the advice of ministers unless the government of the day has lost the confidence of the House of Representatives.
The Governor-General’s ceremonial role includes the opening of new sessions of Parliament, welcoming visiting Heads of State, receiving the credentials of foreign diplomats, and holding investitures where honours awarded to New Zealanders are formally presented. The Governor-General helps to promote New Zealand’s interests overseas through official visits. DPMC, including Government House, works closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in planning her visits.
In her community role, the Governor-General provides non-partisan leadership in the community through speeches, being the patron of charities and community groups, attending functions, and visiting groups throughout New Zealand.
Because of her key role in New Zealand’s system of government, effective support for the Governor-General by DPMC is a key contributor to its overall outcome of “good government”. Maintaining the credibility of the person and office of the Governor-General is integral to the effective performance of her constitutional and ceremonial roles.
The main risk for the DPMC is that the standing of the Governor-General is damaged by her not receiving advisory and administrative support services of a sufficient standard for the representative of the Head of State.
The Wellington and Auckland Government Houses provide the venues for many of the official functions carried out by the Governor-General. They are also historic places and must be maintained to the required standards. A $3 million contract has just been completed to develop new services and reception areas for the house in Auckland. This has brought the house up to the required standards for hosting important official functions in Auckland.
The two principal business units within DPMC for achieving this contributing outcome are the Cabinet Office and Government House.
They contribute in two strategic areas.
Maintaining constitutional propriety and relationships: the Cabinet Office provides advice and administrative support to the Governor-General on a range of constitutional and procedural issues. As Clerk of the Executive Council, the Secretary of the Cabinet is responsible for liaising between the Governor-General and the government of the day, and has overall responsibility for policy and administration of the office of the Governor-General.
Supporting the Governor-General’s ceremonial and community roles:Government House provides all other services needed to support the office of the Governor-General. These include: official functions and hosting of State occasions at Government House; personal support services for the Governor-General; financial, communications, administrative, and advisory services; and support services for the Governor-General’s international travel programme. Government House also oversees the maintenance and development of the grounds and residences in Wellington and Auckland. The Honours Secretariat of the Cabinet Office works closely with Government House in organising the ceremonies, held twice a year, to present honours awarded to New Zealanders under the New Zealand Royal Honours system.
Supporting the Governor-General is a direct responsibility of DPMC through the Cabinet Office and Government House. Other government departments or agencies are consulted as required on particular issues – for example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade when the Governor-General represents New Zealand overseas. Advisory committees have been established to advise the Governor-General on development of the gardens at the residences in Wellington and Auckland. The department will also be working with other agencies and drawing on expert advice to implement the government’s policy on the management of New Zealand’s historic heritage in relation to Government House.
The assessment criteria of quality, quantity, timeliness, and cost for the department’s outputs and Statement of Forecast Service Performance will be used to measure our progress towards Contributing Outcome 3. The specific outputs involved are:
The Governor-General provides regular feedback on her satisfaction with the services provided. Information on any external reviews or evaluations of particular services or activities will be reported on in our annual report as part of assessing the progress we are making.
CHART 4: The Governor-General is well supported
