Prasad Rajen: Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Prasad Rajen: Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 I am also pleased to take a call in support of the Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill. In doing that I acknowledge Miss Adams’ work on this and also her good fortune in having it pulled out of the ballot—and that is to her credit. 
It is a shame that it is not a Government bill because the issue is important. But having said that it is important that the bill is here and it is important that it will be going on its way to a select committee where the really important questions will be raised. The select committee hearings will be an opportunity to acknowledge the work of the voluntary sector and the many people who day in and day out do this work for us. I do not think our social welfare system our child welfare system our alms-giving system and our system of community support could function without these agencies which simply front up to do a great job in our communities. Our communities would not survive and I do not even think that much of our welfare system would survive without them because there is a very close and important relationship between these agencies and Government services. 
The range of these agencies is very broad. There are services for children services for families and support services for the disability sector. There are people out there who rely on the small amounts of money they get from other people’s giving. Many of those who give are poor people as well. There are services for the aged. A number of agencies are out there doing work with this particular sector and they do it with love and affection in a very selfless way. 
I will also mention the refugee settlement sector and the voluntary agencies out there doing this work funded by charitable trusts which do a great job. These agencies are the really tireless workers for us and for our community and they give so generously. They really rely on something that is ingrained if you like in the New Zealand personality and that is this notion of giving. The resources they get by and large to do their work come from the generous giving of New Zealanders. 
I regret though if I may say that these groups rely too much on contributions from voluntary funds and that the State sector does not fund them enough. But that is a debate for a different forum. There can be another discussion about the balance between what the State provides and what voluntary agencies do. In my days as a practitioner when these agencies were really having difficulty I remember that they would often say “Let’s have cake stalls to buy our Skyhawks!”. We all remember seeing those signs yet these people do not do that. The people who stand on street corners with buckets and those who call for funds are the ones who bring in the funds to support this sector. Those people call on a very important aspect of the New Zealand psyche and that is in giving. I think we do it well. 
Therefore it is totally heartbreaking to receive the reports that we have seen in the recent period about the very small percentage of the funds gathered that actually get through to this sector. It is heartbreaking. I must admit that I was amazed when I read some of the figures and I read the amount that telemarketers and others were taking. It is important therefore that we regulate the sector to the extent that is possible without killing off both the collecting as well as the giving behaviour of New Zealanders. That is important. 
There are cases that other members have mentioned so I will not mention them. I turn to the bill itself. Amy Adams is right in focusing on transparency and disclosure and that has an important value. But I do have some difficulties about the percentages and I hope the select committee will visit that issue. I agree with my colleague Ms Beaumont that 20 percent is still a lot of money. If someone collects $10000 then a big chunk of that is gone with people not knowing that that will happen. I think we should have a general culture of disclosure without stopping those who collect in small ways like the collectors on the street who collect the smaller amounts of 10c or a dollar. Thank you very much.