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New Zealand government decision making takes place in a “globalising” world – a world in which seemingly fixed cultural, economic, geographic, political, and linguistic boundaries are now dissolving. Events in other parts of the world have increasingly important implications for New Zealand and New Zealand policy makers. Globalisation also means a less certain world – and in international affairs its effect on closed-in authoritarian regimes has been to produce unpredictable responses. The rise of terrorist attacks of a trans-national nature also seems, in part, to be a reaction to the forces of globalisation.
Risks to New Zealand’s wellbeing can arise from a broad range of circumstances – including threats to national security, terrorist activities, natural disasters, and bio-security hazards. With the use of effective planning and co-ordination processes in government, these risks can be managed to reduce the possibility of a particular adverse event occurring and to lessen the severity of its impact if it does occur. “Good government” for DPMC is assessing, monitoring and responding to risks and threats – foreseen and unforeseen – in a timely and structured way.
The major risks for DPMC are in the areas of specialist staff, information sources, and responsiveness. The department’s External Assessments Bureau (EAB) requires staff with multi-disciplinary backgrounds capable of becoming knowledgeable not only about particular regions of the world but also about specialist technical subjects. If the bureau’s reports do not meet the required standards of relevance, accuracy, and usefulness, then credibility is lost with policy makers.
The department’s Domestic and External Security Group (DESG) requires staff that are multi-skilled and capable of developing strategies, providing leadership in policy development, applying risk-management approaches, and promoting effective inter-agency coordination across a wide range of government departments and agencies. Responsiveness is at risk if DESG, because of resource constraints, is unable to effectively carry out its co-ordination role in the event of a security risk.
Within DPMC, the EAB and the DESG have the prime responsibility for this contributing outcome through their advisory, planning, co-ordination, assessment, and reporting functions.
Increasing New Zealand’s understanding of the external environment: the reports produced by the EAB are intended to inform the Prime Minister, other senior ministers, senior government officials, and New Zealand’s diplomatic representatives overseas about external political, economic, security, strategic, environmental, scientific, and biographic developments of significance to New Zealand’s national interests. Environmental, health, bio-security, and scientific issues are becoming of increasing importance in the EAB’s work.
EAB’s reports are as objective as possible and do not contain policy advice or advocacy. Reports on specific issues often have a short timeframe, but some horizon scanning is also done that looks ahead two or three years. Watch group reports are also produced when an urgent situation demands intensive monitoring.
Maintaining security co-ordination and responsiveness: DESG focuses on policy and planning – helping to make central government better organised to manage security risks. It works closely with DPMC’s Policy Advisory Group – with DESG taking the lead advisory role if an issue has a security aspect. DESG’s activities are based around preparedness and dealing with events as they unfold – often under the direction of the Officials’ Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC), which is headed by the Chief Executive of the DPMC. The group’s activities range across everything from “security of the nation” through to responding to civil emergencies such as floods.
The interrelationship and quite distinct roles of EAB and DESG can be seen when New Zealand
troops are deployed overseas. EAB provides information at a strategic level on the broad background and operational environment of the area where the troops will be stationed. DESG works with the Ministry of Defence, the New Zealand Defence Force, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to co-ordinate policy consideration by the government before and during the deployment.
Specific ongoing activities for DESG during 2005/06 include:
EAB’s key activities for 2005/06 are:
Both EAB and DESG require good relationships with a wide range of outside-agency contributors. EAB has close relationships with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade – and, depending on the issue, DESG works with public-sector agencies such as, Agriculture and Forestry, Fisheries, Customs, Health, the Police, Treasury, and NZAID. DESG’s co-ordination role extends across the public service on an issue-by-issue basis.
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 4. The specific outputs involved are:
The Prime Minister, senior ministers and officials provide regular feedback on their satisfaction with the services provided – which include assessments and reports from EAB; and advisory and co-ordination services from DESG. 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.
EAB’s principal strategic assessments are received and issued as national assessments by an inter-departmental National Assessments Committee, which includes representatives from a number of agencies: Ministry of Defence, the New Zealand Defence Force, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government Communications Security Bureau, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, and DESG. The inter-departmental officials’ committee ODESC also reviews EAB’s performance annually.
CHART 5: The management of domestic and external security and other risks is well planned, informed and co-ordinated
