Turner Judy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Turner Judy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14274] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 When the Prime Minister outlined to the House on Tuesday the intentions of the Labour-led Government for the rest of this parliamentary term one issue appealed to the optimist within me. It was the announcement by the Government that it intends to develop a stronger relationship with the non-governmental sector. The sceptic within me asked some quiet questions about the devil in the detail of this policy. Stronger relationships can be just talk or can be extremely good news for those working in the voluntary and charitable sector. The Prime Minister talked about new funding—a substantial amount of new funding—being ladled in over the next 4 years. United Future welcomes that additional support. We certainly like hearing the list of providers that currently have contracts with the Government that will be able to see fuller financial support for the services they offer. 
I was also interested to note that she talked about the fact that the response to smaller service providers within the communities will move from a contracts-based approach to a grants-based model. The inference here is that because of that change there will be fewer bureaucratic requirements on these smaller providers and fewer compliance costs. If the Government is serious about this intention and if what the Prime Minister has said is real then United Future welcomes it absolutely. From what she said we are not clear about what will happen to new and innovative community projects that spring up on a pretty regular basis in response to community needs at a grassroots level. Part of what makes civil society gel is when the organisations that understand people and know people on a personal basis and make policy from a ground-up position are allowed the freedom to do the work they do best and are given support to do that. 
When I questioned the Minister this afternoon about this announcement she said one thing in her answer that gave me additional hope. My question was whether this new funding comes with any fish-hooks in it. That has been the concern of community providers for some time. I know for instance of a fantastic project in Christchurch that works to integrate prisoners as they leave prison and go back into the community. The organisation offers accommodation to former prisoners if they need it and certainly employment. 
The way the organisation makes that work—and it has very good results measurably good results—is that it works to develop relationships with inmates while they are in prison then it selectively offers its programme to people it has built a good relationship with and who have demonstrated a real intention to change. The organisation did not ever want to apply for Government funding because the fear was that the very ethos of the organisation would be undermined by Government departments like the Department of Corrections and the probation service insisting that it take whoever they sent its way. That would undercut the tone of what it wants to achieve. 
I am very interested to see whether organisations like that are now sufficiently comfortable when they see this rolled out to make applications. They certainly get results and save the New Zealand taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars every month with the success they enjoy. I am also keen to see whether the Government is serious about ensuring that it does not duplicate the work of agencies. The example that comes to mind is another Christchurch one the Christchurch Family Help Trust which years ago went to the Government with some extremely good evidence of the work it did. It had done its own research and could prove to the Government that what it was doing was working. What did the Government do? Did it give the trust a contract or any funding? No it went and duplicated the service itself and set up an alternative provider and the organisation which has continued to do the work has spent a huge amount of its time fundraising to try to provide an ongoing basis for the most at-risk families in Christchurch. 
So United Future welcomes the Government’s announcement but we signal that we will be watching and monitoring the roll-out of this very very closely because if what the Government says is true then it will be good news for those organisations. If this is just a lot of words and a talkfest then I think we will have a lot of very disappointed organisations. The optimist in me welcomes the call and signals that we will be watching very closely what the Government really does mean by what it has said.