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- Engage-in-Brief: 11 August 2025
Engage-in-Brief: 11 August 2025
Holly Bennett
August 11, 2025
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TWO TRICKS TO TRY
Want to know what’s on the agenda at Parliament each day? Get familiar with the Order Paper! The Order Paper, published before the start of each sitting day, sets out the items that Parliament intends to cover that day. It shows you the Bills that are up for debate, what stage they’re at, how many speeches there’ll be, and how long each of those speeches can last. The number of items the House gets through each day varies, so bills at the top of the Order Paper are higher priority.
Local Government elections are rapidly approaching! It’s important to make sure you know who’s standing in your area (but click here if you’re based in Auckland). You can check your enrolment details here, to find out what votes you’ll be eligible to cast. Want to know more about your local candidates? Send them an email! Let them know what issues you care about, and find out where they stand on the things that matter to you. Engaging with Local Government is just as important as Central Government, but often gets overlooked. So go ahead and reach out — you might find a new ally for your important kaupapa.
ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW
The Parliamentary Precinct (made up of the Beehive, Parliament House, the Parliamentary Library, and a few exciting new buildings that are currently under construction) is home to not just 122 MPs, but also well over a thousand staff, who make sure the wheels of Government keep turning. In our last issue, we covered the organisations that support the Legislature. This time around, we’re looking at the organisations that support the Executive branch — Ministerial Services and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC).
Ministerial Services
Ministerial Services, which is part of the Department of Internal Affairs, provides a range of services to the Executive branch of the New Zealand Government, including ministerial office staff; office space, equipment, and related support services; and administrative, financial, and ICT support.
As well as the Minister, when you’re engaging with a Minister’s office you might also speak with private secretaries (responsible for managing the relationship between the Minister and their department), ministerial advisers (who provide policy support and advice), or press secretaries (responsible for communications, public appearances, and media matters).
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC)
DPMC is the agency responsible for providing intelligence, advice, support, and secretariat services to the Government of the day. In many ways, DPMC is the Executive equivalent of the Office of the Clerk.
Although the public doesn’t often interact with them, DPMC works across the public sector to enable the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, and Cabinet to lead and govern New Zealand.
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ONE FUNNY THING
This week’s Funny Moment comes to you from the Committee of the whole House stage of the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill.
But we aren’t blaming Mr Abel — it’s an easy mistake to make! The committee stage is the most technical phase of the legislative process, and often involves very close readings and clause-by-clause debate of the proposed legislation. So when MPs are scrutinising each individual clause of a Bill, they can occasionally lose track of where it sits in the overall legislation. But some good chairing and quick thinking got things back on track pretty quickly, and the committee stage carried on smoothly.
That’s it for another edition of Engage-in-Brief! Remember, you have a voice and you can use it. If you need training to support your advocacy efforts simply reply to this email.
Mauri ora!
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