Worth Richard: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Worth Richard: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2473] 
Hon Dr RICHARD WORTH (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 The Department of Internal Affairs is the mother of all departments. It has direct descent from the days of the Colonial Secretary and this mother gave birth in due course to public works justice health and social welfare and continues to manage a diverse array of functions. The modern department is very much part of the fabric of New Zealand society. It touches the lives of citizens literally from birth to death and supports every community. 
All members will be keenly aware of the challenging economic environment in which we find ourselves. This new Government is focused on steering New Zealand through the global recession. To do that we are obviously looking for everyone to play their part and the Department of Internal Affairs is focused on this. 
In the context of this debate I would like to overview and highlight what has occurred in the past reporting period which is the topic of this debate. The department’s responsibilities are closely related and are in the areas of critical importance for our future—security safety identity local government and community. All these responsibilities contribute to the department’s purpose of “serving and connecting citizens communities and government to build a strong and safe nation.” 
If I look at the financial overview for 2007-08 I see that expenditure for the department is appropriated through six different votes and covers a wide range of services and activities. Just to take last year for example the department’s revenue totalled $215.2 million with 56 percent of that revenue or approximately $120.6 million coming from third-party sources such as fee income. 
If I could talk just for a moment about the departmental initiatives then I would say to members tonight that the highlights of work within the internal affairs portfolio include first of all passport redevelopment. The plan as members may know is to introduce a new passport book and a processing system for better service and security. This is now a virtually constant process of improvement in meeting international demands. 
Another area that we are involved in is anti-spam. The department is making progress on fighting spam. It will not of course stop spam but there is the hope that it will be able to say with some confidence that a spam operation cannot be run in this country without detection and prosecution. 
Then there is also the third area the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Auckland’s Governance. As well as having responsibility for this work as part of its local government activities the department in the last period provided administrative support to the royal commission during 2007-08 and until the report was released at the end of March 2009 as part of its executive Government support role. 
A lot of work is also being done on centralisation work within the department. The department is more efficient because it has been centralising business functions like human resources and information technology. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Old Tories being caught out eh? 
Hon Dr RICHARD WORTH 
: As members might know and that member in particular will know one of the new challenges for the department is to take on this aspect of Government Technology Services. Government Technology Services is transferring to the department creating an information technology shop of considerable size and skill. I hope there may be a really good opportunity to advance the causes that are so critical in the context of interoperability of computer services. A whole lot of legacy decisions are now coming to maturity and we need to make decisions that will enable the prospect of interoperability of computer systems within the Government service. 
If I were to highlight the work of the department in other portfolio areas I would say these things. First of all the work that was done in connection with the civil defence exercise which some members will remember—Exercise Ruaumoku—was highly successful. It played a big part I believe in raising awareness of the volcano threat. Also in this same period was the Edmund Hillary funeral and the department was able to use its expertise in the organisation of that service.