Henare PeeniPEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare ngā mihi nui ki a koe ki roto i ngā āhuatanga o tēnei tau te rā tuatahi ka noho Te Whare Pāremata mō tēnei tau e mihi atu ana au ki a koe. Ka huri i tua atu ngā mihi ki Te Minita hōu ki tōku tuakana ki Te Hōnore a Alfred Ngaro me tēnei pire ka hau mai ki roto i Te Whare. E te tuakana e mihi atu ana au ki a koe me te kōrero o te whakataukī a ngā mātua a ngā tūpuna i matuku mai i Rarotonga e mihi atu ana au ki a koe![Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and huge compliments to you in regard to the circumstances on the first sitting day of the House of Parliament for this year; I acknowledge you. Furthermore I turn to offer my compliments to the new Minister and my elder kin the Hon Alfred Ngaro and to this new bill introduced into the House. To you my senior kin I congratulate you in terms of the saying of the ancestral fathers and forefathers a heron from Rarotonga: well done!]Thank you for the opportunity Mr Assistant Speaker. I just firstly wanted to greet you in the first sitting day of this calendar year and also acknowledge the member Alfred Ngaro who is the current Minister in charge of this bill for his rise through the ranks. I have no doubt that his whānau his community and his people of Rarotonga will be very happy and proud of their son. So to you I say congratulations the Hon Alfred Ngaro.To the bill. The volunteer sector has had more pressures put on it certainly in my time in Parliament as the member for Tāmaki Makaurau. The volunteer sector has been placed under significant stress in Tāmaki Makaurau and in particular in South Auckland where poverty is at unprecedented levels. Poverty has forced our people to call upon the charity of services such as the Salvation Army and many others. However what we have not seen is significant support for those charities to make sure that Kiwis from far and wide receive the support that they need during hard times—the safety net that once upon a time was there that allowed them to make sure they had food on the table for their families and to make sure that they had resources for their tamariki and a roof over their head.This particular bill does just a few things. They have already been well canvassed in the House. One of them of course is around the inability for somebody who has a conviction under the Tax Administration Act to stand in a position of responsibility within charities. That is a step in the right direction because for those who rely on those services and for administrations such as this Government and the ministries it is important that they have confidence in those charities working hard in the community to provide the services that are needed.More importantly it is important that these services continue. I take the point of my colleague Sue Moroney who talked about the need for this particular sector to be supported properly. The workload has increased. Some would argue administration matters have caused those who were delivering services on the front line to now take backroom office jobs to make sure that administration is kept up with. An important part of all charities is to make sure that the papers are in order that the books are in order and that all is transparent so that the confidence of the Government and the confidence of ministries and the confidence of the community exists. So with the increase in work we wonder when we look at this bill exactly how does this make things better.The other part of the bill is a minor technical error. Referring to the chief executive" tidies one of those parts up which is pretty straightforward. We seem to be doing a lot of little tidy-ups certainly in the 2 years I have been a member of this House when we have come in and we have had to backtrack on certain Acts just to tidy up small parts of the Acts to make sure that they are more efficient. It speaks to some of the poor processes that many of the bills in this House have gone through. The test will be whether indeed this particular bill makes things easier for those on the front line. The test will come after this particular legislation is in force as to whether or not the compliance responsibilities on charities will cause more frustration more headaches for the already stressed staff.Finally I just want to congratulate all of the volunteers and to spread the love with Te Reo Māori. For voluntary work the Māori words are mahi tūao—and a volunteer is a kaitūao. In particular I wanted to congratulate the many volunteers who made Waitangi Day the success it was. I as a member of the Waitangi National Trust saw first-hand the hard work by the many volunteers at Waitangi over the past few days. I want to congratulate them and all of the volunteers who have been mentioned in tonight's contributions and say to them that although this particular bill will tidy up some of the fringe elements in the sector that they work within let us be real that what the sector does need is a significant injection of resources and cash and a focus from this Government to ensure that those who do use the services of charities and those clubs and organisations that have many volunteers get the support that they need. We support this bill."