Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): That's not the first time and it won't be the last. I'm 10 years Erica Stanford's senior so I'm happy with that thanks very much.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): My apologies.Hon Member: That's a good amendment.DENISE LEE: Ha! That is a good amendment.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I need to put my glasses on.DENISE LEE: Madam Chair thank you so much for allowing me to take the call. I want to speak to an amendment in my name and I'm very very happy to have this amendment tabled. It is amending new section 65A in clause 5. There are a number of amendments tonight that are tabling exemptions to new section 65A. Some of those are the commercial farming operations—so exemptions for farming operations undertaken commercially—commercial tourism operations that occur off road and also commercial horticultural activities. So they're all amendments for exemptions under some of my colleagues' names but I'm incredibly proud tonight to have a particular amendment to new section 65A for an exemption for any vehicle that is primarily operated by members of and for the purposes of a registered charity.As we might know and imagine tonight here volunteering is an essential element of our society of a civil society. We need volunteers to turn New Zealand around and keep the cogs turning. All New Zealanders at one stage in their lives they're going to volunteer somehow in some way shape or form. We're all the beneficiaries—aren't we—and have experienced volunteerism in the assistance and aid into our own lives. Sometimes they're families sometimes they're friends—direct or indirect we're beneficiaries.New Zealand has 97000 non-profit organisations contributing 2.6 percent to our GDP so the case for and the basis for honouring our volunteers is incredibly strong. It increases that contribution to GDP to 4.9 percent if you take into account the volunteer labour contribution which is equivalent to the entire construction sector. So this is the volume and the importance of what volunteers do and who are they are for New Zealand and need I underscore that this week is National Volunteer Week Hon Members: Oh!DENISE LEE: Yes it is. There are more than 1.2 million volunteers who give more than 270 million hours of unpaid labour to the sector—1.2 million volunteers. Let's isolate it now for the purposes of this bill to Auckland. Auckland would have a huge substantial chunk of those volunteers operating and volunteering and giving their amazing efforts and energy heart and care into Auckland.The voluntary sector for New Zealand often competes for reducing pools of volunteers. Unfortunately that's where society is going. It's tough yards out there to get volunteers and as a result they're having to rely on being more creative to garner those volunteers. So wouldn't it be good if the Minister accepted my amendment which asks for something quite straightforward quite simple and that is to allow any vehicle primarily operated by members of and for the purposes of a registered charity to be locked and loaded for—and volunteers that we honour and that we want to have still engaged in Auckland. Of course we all know that this fuel tax is going wider to the country so we're also talking about volunteers all around the country.The Government has so far not been willing to admit how hard this fuel tax will hit low-income earners. Perhaps they'll be willing to admit that this amendment would be of assistance to volunteers. They will be hit. Now I ran a charitable organisation—in fact I co-founded one myself—so I know full well in Auckland what it takes to get around to be stuck in traffic and to need to take up some of those precious resources that voluntary organisations have. So this small measure which would go a huge way to support volunteers in this National Volunteer Week is something that we implore the Minister and the Government to pick up tonight. When it comes time to vote do the right thing and support volunteer organisations. Thank you.