Ngaro Alfred: Public Collections and Solicitations (Disclosure of Payment) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNgaro Alfred: Public Collections and Solicitations (Disclosure of Payment) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5770. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALFRED NGARO (National): It is an honour to stand and take a call on this Public Collections and Solicitations (Disclosure of Payment) Bill at its first reading. I want to acknowledge my friend and colleague Matt Doocey. Again it is always an honour for any MP and especially when you are a backbencher to be able to have your member’s bill drawn. To Mr Matt Doocey I congratulate you on having that opportunity. There are many members who have been here for a long time who have never had a bill drawn so it always—Chris Bishop: You’ve had one.ALFRED NGARO: I have had one too. So it is an honour to be able to do that.I just want to make some comments about the previous speaker Poto Williams making what I thought were some slightly uncharitable comments about Mr Doocey asking whether he has anything better to do. Most members’ bills are actually small bills that make amendments to other pieces of legislation or they introduce a small form of legislation around the change. Although we are talking about the big shifts and changes most members’ bills are not earth-shattering they are not moving the world in significant ways but they do look at things and they do ask the right questions.I do want to make this point. The question is this: what is the mischief what is the area of concern and need that needs to be changed or addressed in this bill? This bill talks about the aspect of requiring all persons who are “collecting or soliciting donations subscriptions signatures or other support for an organisation” to disclose any payment or remuneration for performing that role. In other words it is wanting to assure that there is some transparency.The comments that have been made are that yes we have a strong volunteering culture. We also have a very charitable culture. Mr Speaker you probably remember back in the days when we used to have the telethon. There were lots of fund-raising activities right up and down the country. I remember that our family used to bunk down in the sitting room and watch that 24-hour cycle where people would raise money and they would sing that song “Thank you very much for your kind donation”. That is the sort of culture that New Zealand has where even today just last year there was $1.2 billion worth of funds raised by New Zealanders given to charities right up and down the country both for purposes in New Zealand and also abroad as well. It shows that we have this culture and we want to protect this culture not only of volunteerism but also this culture of having a charitable nature. This bill then is wanting to say this though it is not trying to and will not address those who are volunteering for a charitable organisation. What it will do though is protect those charitable dollars and those charitable funds.We have nicknamed them “chuggers”: in other words people who for devious reasons will turn around and try and take those charitable dollars that are meant for good intentions and may use it for their own. That is the area of concern that Mr Matt Doocey has actually raised here. It is an area of concern. We know it happens. Just a couple of weeks ago Ronald McDonald House was robbed and families were in there. What we thought was actually sacrosanct places that we thought were sacred that were tapu to us OK—David Shearer: What’s this got to do with the bill?ALFRED NGARO: It has a lot to do with the bill. What it does is it talks about Mr Shearer the volunteering aspect and the charitable dollars that we spend and how we protect those who are most in need as well. That is what this bill actually talks about and the other parts of the bill also talk about this. It talks about subscriptions and signatures. There was a concern at one time that there were potentially political parties that were using taxpayer-funded dollars to allow their staff to go out and potentially get signatures for petitions. That is a concern that New Zealanders would have because if they had not disclosed their intent where they come from and the purpose for which they were gaining those signatures then I think that the public needs to know whether there needs to be a disclosure and whether people need to be aware. So this bill has a good intent.I think as it goes from its first reading we will hear a variety of different submissions. I know that Mr Matt Doocey will be able to support that as it is going to the Social Services Committee. It will be simple things like this: if Mr Matt Doocey went out into the public and said that he was going to gain a subscription or some support maybe even a signature then he should be able to say “Good morning I am Mr Matt Doocey. I am actually here on behalf of this organisation wanting to raise some funds or a subscription.” and be able to declare that so that it is transparent. There is nothing hard or difficult about that but what that does do is it creates a sense of honesty about the intent and the purpose for which that person or the organisation is gaining.I support this bill to select committee. I look forward to the submissions. There will not be hordes of submissions but there will be enough that turn around and say: “Look there is a concern here.” We should make sure that we protect those charitable dollars. Like I say $1.2 billion of charitable funds that go out to our communities and yes it is the surf lifesaving groups and it is the hospices. I went to a fashion show in Te Atatū community centre just last weekend. It is organisations that provide much needed service—