Department of Internal AffairsGovernment

The Department of Internal Affairs (Te Tari Taiwhenua) is New Zealand's primary public service department dedicated to civil identity, local government oversight, and heritage management. Its role includes managing civil registration, issuing passports, administering citizenship, regulating gambling, and stewarding major national memory institutions such as Archives New Zealand and the National Library. Founded in 1840 as the Colonial Secretary's Office, it is the country's oldest government agency and earned the moniker 'mother of all departments' because dozens of contemporary state agencies originally evolved from it.