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DPMC was established in January 1990 to provide impartial, high-quality advice and support to the Executive (the Prime Minister, the Governor-General, and the Cabinet). The services provided by DPMC flow from the various roles performed by the Prime Minister and the Governor-General in the New Zealand system of government.
DPMC has an explicit set of servicing functions within a whole-of-government context. In two of these servicing roles the department directly services a single person – the Prime Minister in one case, and the Governor-General in the other. DPMC’s third servicing role is that of supporting Cabinet collectively.
DPMC supports the Prime Minister’s twin roles as leader of the government and chair of Cabinet, and has explicit responsibility for promoting co-ordination across the public service. This co-ordination role extends some of the department’s activities across the whole public service and – depending on the issue – further out into local government, industry and the wider community.
The Prime Minister is the political leader of the government and the country – and its main public “face”. The Prime Minister is also the chair of Cabinet, and the person responsible for the effective operation of collective government. These roles combine political and executive responsibilities.
DPMC 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. An important part of this support is for constitutional issues relating to the conduct of executive government – including elections 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 cannot provide this overview and information on its own. It must work with the rest of the public service to provide information and advice on particular issues. This provides an imperative for DPMC to ensure that the system of public-service support for the government can come together swiftly and ably to support the Prime Minister and other ministers.
Thirdly, DPMC provides administrative support to the Prime Minister. This includes services 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 departments and 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 her functions. New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy. This means that the Queen is New Zealand’s Head of State; but her powers and those of her representative, the Governor-General, are exercised only on the advice of ministers and the government . The Governor-General is, therefore, a significant figure in the constitutional framework, with constitutional, ceremonial, and community roles.
A great deal of DPMC’s activities focus on facilitating government decision making at a strategic and operational level. A major role is to help co-ordinate 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 people who work at DPMC come from a wide range of backgrounds – including being seconded from other government departments or outside organisations. Issues are responded to as required and DPMC may be asked to set up temporary units or task forces to provide advice on a particular issue (or issues) within a specified length of time.