Hipango HareteHEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK (VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATIONS) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHARETE HIPANGO (National—Whanganui): Tēnā koe. E tū ahau ki te karanga o tēnei Whare. E tīmata taku kōrero mahi tuatahi o te tauhou i roto i Te Whare. E mihi ana ki ngā tāngata katoa.[Thank you. I stand to the call of this House. I commence my first work speech of the new year in the House. Greetings to all the people.]I take my first call in the House for 2019 and in so doing I pay homage to my colleagues here in the House but also I take the opportunity to speak in Te Reo Māori. It's something that rather than just once a year for a week—that we make an effort to revive and speak and use the Reo and I encourage my colleagues to make a concerted effort.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Sorry to interrupt the member but there's a motion that the member needs to move first.HARETE HIPANGO: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I move the motion That the bill now be taken to its second reading.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Oh we'll get the words to her.HARETE HIPANGO: The correct wording? Thank you. I move That the Health and Safety at Work (Volunteer Associations) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Kōrero mai.HARETE HIPANGO: Thank you. So Mr Assistant Speaker and members of the House I continue in terms of acknowledgment of Te Reo Māori and I encourage everybody around the continuation of the using of it otherwise we lose that as we embark on the journey with this. I just hearken members also that this year I believe for the first time lessons will be offered to us and I invite people to embark on that language learning journey on 20 March.Now I turn importantly as well to the bill Mr Assistant Speaker and with your indulgence may I seize this moment—being the first opportunity to address the House this year—to acknowledge not only the passing of 2018 going into the new year but also the acknowledgment of loved and treasured ones. And briefly I turn to acknowledge a well-regarded member of my community in the Whanganui electorate councillor Sue Westwood who gave service for 30 years in that capacity as a councillor but also as a lifelong volunteer to our community in Whanganui. Councillor Sue Westwood—a robust statuesque powerful and strong woman whose contribution over the course of her lifetime to our community particularly our volunteer sector was notably significant and I pay homage to her. She added value to the health the well-being and the safety of our community in Whanganui and also further afield giving immeasurable and invaluable service over the course of her lifetime.Now I turn to the bill and just on reflection with the passing of a year and the passing of life I turn just briefly to make mention of the bill that was before the House. I make mention of that because last weekend as the member of Parliament for Whanganui I joined with a number of volunteers back in Whanganui to spruce and clean up the waterways. The relevance of the bill being debated previously—before this bill before the House—is that it also engaged the service and the time of volunteers.Now I turn importantly to what this amendment is about. Clause 4 is seeking to amend section 17 of the principal Act in that the definition of volunteer association" is changed so as to include associations which have people in paid employment for the association for not greater than 100 hours per week. The report back to the House from the Education and Workforce Committee is dated November 2018. I sat and presided with the other members of that committee and I acknowledge them for their contribution as well as the submitters to that bill. There were a total of 34 written submissions to the bill eight of which were in favour four neutral and 22 opposed. What's of note is that those submitters to the bill who spoke to the committee and were opposed were predominantly large organisations. The eight who spoke in favour were smaller voluntary organisations and that was very much indicative of the strained resources and the difficulties that our smaller volunteer associations in our community have in terms of the provision of a valued service within the community.When I first spoke to this bill at the first reading that was 4 April 2018. We're now some 11 months down the line. I note across the House my colleague from New Zealand First who was one of those speakers at that time who literally threw a lifeline. The member spoke about being a volunteer member of a surf lifesaving club. I made mention at that first reading that that lifeline that had been thrown enabled this bill to go before the select committee for submissions to be heard. Regrettably this bill is going to sink because that lifeline has been withdrawn.I also shared with the House at this time last year that coincidentally I had just returned from Australia where my daughter had competed in the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships. She came away from that—and a proud Mama moment—as a champion. However the problem that I stand confronted with facing the House and members across the floor there is that in my attempt to champion this bill that lifeline has been withdrawn. This bill is sinking rapidly.However in saying that I invite members across the House to heed and factor in that the debate and the argument that had been presented is very much on the basis that those submissions were from the focus of large organisations well-resourced organisations and referenced some of what I would consider with respect misrepresentations of what this bill is really about. I harken to the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway in the debate speeches referring to this as a normal part of doing business. This bill is about volunteer organisations not in the nature of doing business and that word was repeatedly—and that concept and construct—referenced by the member that this is about business. This is not; this is about our small voluntary organisations many of which run on the smell of an oily rag and do not have those oil-rich resources in the way of funding to be able to continue in their service without the necessity of having to employ or pay persons who would otherwise give their time voluntarily.The member from the Labour Party referenced being a volunteer service fireman and on reflection in reading through the Hansard notes and speeches the member was somewhat considerably inflammatory around the representation of what this bill is about. I seek to extinguish that by stating that the focus and the emphasis is about the survival of our smaller volunteer organisations that many of our organisations community-based would not exist if not for the efforts of them. Ninety-seven thousand non-profit organisations 1.2 million volunteers—most if not all of the members in the House have at some stage or another volunteered our time and our service without which having done so much of the goodwill and constructive positive contributions in our society and community simply would not exist.The difficulty that our society and communities are now confronted with is that that voluntary goodwill is not able to keep these organisations afloat if not for the fact of having to pay for some of those small administrative tasks whereby the legal responsibility of any sinking or any misdemeanour that goes on is onerous under this law. My other colleagues will address the House in other aspects that were submitted before the select committee regrettably to say this bill is to be drowned and it does not heed the valuable contribution of our volunteers in our communities. Kia ora."