Shanks Katrina: Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Shanks Katrina: Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:659;Page:8404] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call on the Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill. First of all I acknowledge the hard work that Amy Adams the MP for Selwyn has put into this bill. It takes a fair bit of effort to get a member’s bill into the House so I congratulate her on the effort she has put in for such a worthy cause. There are no greater causes than charities and the work that they do to support the most vulnerable and needy people in our society. I found it interesting when I was listening to Amy Adams give her speech because I did not realise that there are over 23000 registered charities in New Zealand and that an estimated total income of about $10.4 billion goes into those charities which is very very significant. Of that $2.4 billion comes from donations. That is fairly significant. We are talking about a big amount of money—$2.4 billion—that comes from donations. That is huge. 
Many of us in this House do a lot of work for charities. Not only do we fund-raise in terms of the Parliamentary Rugby Team and the netball team which I coach with Moana Mackey but also we do a lot of work for charities by going around New Zealand raising money and donating it to a good cause. Many of us in the House also stand with buckets on the corners of busy streets for long periods of time to raise money for causes and to raise their profiles. We do that to give those charities a bit more visibility than they would normally have especially when we advertise where we will be what we will do and what we are supporting that week. It raises their profile just a little bit more. I think that every member in this House does a fair bit towards charities. It is good to see that this bill will not affect the work we do in terms of going out there to hold our buckets because the volunteers in the street give a heart to communities as well. This bill will not affect the heart with which that money is given. When people walking by put their $10 in the bucket they will not be affected either. 
When we talk about charities it is important that charities have transparency and public accountability about how they raise their money because people give out of the goodness of their hearts. Transparency and public accountability is especially important for those charities that do not use employees or direct-marketing but use a third party to raise money. Telemarketers do a lot of good work for those charities but unfortunately they also come at a cost. This legislation which will go to a select committee will add some transparency and accountability into that process. In doing that we hope it will restore confidence to the public when they donate money so that they know how much money is going to the charity and how much money is going to the third party that is helping to raise that money. 
When we look at some of the specifics in the bill it is interesting to note that a third party collector means someone who is not an employee and who acts in the course of professional trade on behalf of a charitable entity. That is important because we do not want to catch the real employees and the charities within this provision but just the third parties in order to get transparency in this process. There have been many sad stories of big charities raising money and not a lot of it actually going to those charities. This bill will help that situation. Hopefully it will encourage more people to give money to charities and they will not be as sceptical about whether the money will actually go to the charity. 
Many of us do the Relay for Life. We run around and when we ask people for money we hear them saying that not much of the money collected goes to people with cancer. But actually it does so it is good that we will get some transparency in this area. It is my pleasure to support this bill’s referral to a select committee where members can have a very good robust debate on some of the clauses in this bill. Thank you.