Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill

The honourary Dr—no, just ordinary Dr Duncan Webb.

Tēnā koe for that, Mr Speaker. I move, That the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.

I just note that it is apposite that we are looking at this bill about the Girl Guides Association on the week of International Women’s Day—a nice touch; not what I’d planned. It’s also interesting that given that I was dishonourably discharged from the Cubs down at South Brighton, I’m not sure I’m the best person to marshal the bill through the House. But, as I said repeatedly to our akela, I will do my best.

The purpose of this bill is to clarify and confirm the powers of the Girl Guides Association of New Zealand Inc. so that it can deal with its assets freely, and this includes the disposition of property which has been gifted to it on trust. There’s an argument that under the 1942 Act, some dispositions may be inconsistent with the requirements of section 6 of that Act, but this bill will put it beyond doubt that the association can sell or otherwise dispose of its property, provided it’s consistent with the objects of the association. The objects of the association are relatively lengthy. They’re set out in the association’s constitution, but they do include: “To advance education by the special training and instruction of girls of New Zealand in the principles of discipline, loyalty, good citizenship, and service for others and by the development of their character”, and those certainly are good objects.

But a little bit of history, and I think it’s important here that we do give this some historical background, particularly where we talk about a particular piece of land that is concerning here. The girl guides and their forerunner, the Peace Scouts for girls, already had a presence in New Zealand in 1908. This was due to the work of Lieutenant Colonel David Cossgrove, who started the scouting movement in New Zealand. [Interruption] Yes, Mr McAnulty, but I don’t believe related to any former members of this House.

Lieutenant Cossgrove served in the Boer War with Baden-Powell. He was a headmaster at Tuahiwi, which is just outside Christchurch, and he brought the Scout movement to New Zealand. He had four daughters, and the youngest was Muriel. They were living, of course, in a country which had already won the vote for women 15 years earlier, and Muriel asked for a girls’ equivalent to Scouts. So it was 1908, a year before girls in Britain made the same request, that Cossgrove organised the Peace Scouts for girls, and I did smile when I saw that the junior branch was called the fairy scouts. Names have been changed.

In keeping with the progressive nation that this country is, that was two years before the formation of the girl guides in Britain in 1910, and the British organisation was formally incorporated by royal charter—which is a little unusual—in 1922. So in 1928, the Peace Scouts became Girlguiding, and the New Zealand association joined the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts—probably the first ever WAGGGS group—as a founding member. I do want to recognise that at about this time, there were some groups that were modelled on the Girl Guides Association in the UK as well, including in Auckland, which was led by a woman by the name of Wilson—I think it was Lucinda and Bertha Wilson.

At that time, though, the Peace Scouts was an unincorporated association. It held various assets and properties, leading to some legal complications, which are not dissimilar to another organisation I’m familiar with. In light of this, its status as a body corporate was created by the passing of the Act we’re now concerned with, the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Act. Just looking at what they did back in sort of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, to become a second-class Scout, a girl or young woman had to demonstrate skills in knotting, signalling, compass work, lifesaving, and first aid, and she had to trek, bike, ride a horse, or row a boat for five miles, and produce reports on where she had been and what she’d seen. As I’ve said, I think things in girl guiding have changed. The girl guides’ membership peaked in 1965, when there were 33,000 members. In 2019, there were about 10,500 girls, aged five to 17, in guiding. So that leads us to where we are today.

Some of the association’s long-held properties have become uneconomic to hold, and the association’s finances have become, whilst not parlous, a little strained. So clause 4 of the bill replaces section 4 of the principal Act to clarify that the association has the power to dispose of property of all kinds, including kinds that have been held on trust. Clause 4(4) of the bill makes it clear that the power to sell or otherwise dispose of property set out in clause 4 will override any limitation set out elsewhere in the Act, including section 6, where it states that “Despite section 6 and any statutory trust that it recognises, this section applies even if the trust terms would not, without this section, permit the disposition of property.”

It’s appropriate here to note that the reason that the bill is now before the House is because the association holds property in Waitakere, Auckland, known as Otimai, and it intends to dispose of that property. That property was gifted by a trust deed to the association’s predecessor by the Wilson family—in fact, by Lucinda and Bertha Wilson—way back in 1929. I think it was Lucinda, in fact, who was very instrumental in getting girl guiding off the ground back in the 1920s.

I also want to recognise that the Wilson family do have existing family members. Bill Wilson is one of them—formerly of Wilson and Horton—who has taken an interest in what’s going on with this property. So that was gifted by trust, and the objective of the trust was that the property be held upon trust to permit the same to be appropriated, used, and enjoyed in perpetuity under the name Otimai as a training home for girl guides and so on.

Now, that leads us to the problem that the words “in perpetuity” suggest that it’s not to be disposed of. The Girl Guides Association’s recent attempt to deal with Otimai exposed some internal inconsistencies in the Act, and here we are cleaning that up for them. I do want to acknowledge that the original proposals to sell the land did meet with some opposition and dissent, but this process is an absolutely transparent one. The bill will be going to select committee for a full submission process, and anyone who wants to be heard—absolutely I’m confident, given the excellent select committee and chairmanship of that select committee, that it will be properly considered and heard.

So various options have been explored for dealing with Otimai, but the fact of the matter is that it’s a loss-making enterprise, and it’s not feasible for the girl guides, in their view, to hold on to that property. So because it’s not financially viable, it’s in the interests of the Girl Guides Association of New Zealand and its members that it’s sold and the proceeds are reinvested back into the association. So the bill will, in essence, enable the association to make decisions which are in the best interests of the girls and young women that it serves. Whilst this generous gift of the Wilson family is recognised, it was given over 90 years ago, and the way the world operates, the activities that are engaged in, and the circumstances of the Girl Guides Association have changed.

I will note that I was looking for some girl guide biscuits to table, but it appears that they’re much harder to come by. I was going say that I was going to try and table them, even though they’re available on the internet, which I’m told is in breach of Standing Orders, but I was going to give it a go by leave.

But, anyway, the bill does provide well-needed clarity and a degree of liberty for the association to deal with its assets as it sees appropriate so that it’s not open to criticism or objection in dealing with land. This is the only way this can be dealt with because of the nature of the trust and the nature of the legislation by which the Girl Guides Association was incorporated, so it won’t be constrained by the terms of this very old trust deed or other trust deeds, in fact, and it can deal in property in an appropriate way. It won’t be constrained to hold it in a manner which no longer serves a purpose for this modern organisation. So I’m hopeful that members here will support this bill through to select committee, where it can receive some very careful consideration, and I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I thank the member Duncan Webb for that history of the Girl Guides Association. I think we must have googled the same information because I have exactly the same to present today. So the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill does seek, as the colleague across the House has said, to make a minor change to the Act to sell Otimai, which is a property they hold in the Waitakeres in Auckland, and they want to apply the proceeds of that sale to Girl Guides New Zealand’s general operations.

This bill is unusual in that it is a private bill, and they don’t come into this House very often, as members would be well aware. Private bills are commonly used in this House for matters relating to trusts—for example, lands held on trust for community use. There are other things such as changes to the trustees’ administering of a trust or the validation of scholarships allowances provided by a private trust, and the board matters are for private and not general legislation. So almost a privilege to be speaking on this private bill today, and, as we’ve noticed, a private bill supersedes members’ bills. So that is why it has gone straight to the top of the Order Paper. That’s why any amendment to a private Act must be introduced as a private bill and will appear ahead of members’ bills.

So the history, as we’ve heard, began after the Sea Scouts were established over in the UK by Lord Baden-Powell in 1907. That’s because one of his colleagues that served with him, Lieutenant Cossgrove, served in the Boer War with him and brought the Scouts idea back to New Zealand. As Duncan Webb has said, he was a schoolmaster in Christchurch. He was blessed with four daughters and they wanted—or the youngest one, especially—a girl’s version of the Scouts. So that is how it happened here in New Zealand.

They were called the Peace Scouts for girls, and in 1908 were established and well ahead of the UK, as well. Twenty years later, it actually became the girl guides. New Zealand was a founding member of the World Association of Girl Guides, and we are still among 150 countries that belong to the association. Their mission is to empower girls to take action to change their world. They hold national and international camps, they take part in training, and they have leadership development. There are a variety of other activities that the guides programme and all their programmes are tailored to achieve across a range of age groups.

For instance, they take on science experiments to learn about STEM: science, technology, engineering, and maths—so maybe we should have the girl guides advising the Minister of Education. They learn how to lead a healthy lifestyle. They do fund-raising for causes they care about, and, of course, we all know of the famous girl guide biscuits, that traditional consistent recipe that has been sold for many years as one of their key fund-raisers.

They look after communities by doing clean-ups and they plant trees and they work with other community groups. But, of course, they also love getting into the outdoors, and that is one of the key things that they challenge the girls with. But one of the key features that they’re very proud of is that they have fun.

I imagine that there are not too many women in this House now that would have joined girl guides. I was part of a break-off group that wasn’t actually girl guides, but we’re going back a few years now. It must have been a country thing, a rural thing.

But what we’ve heard today is, quite rightly, the drop in the membership of girl guides. One of the things that I believe has been the cause of that is because back in around 2007—I couldn’t get an exact date—the Scouts became co-ed. The girls were invited to join Scouts, and so the two organisations almost created that competition between themselves. Then there was other competition for membership, such as sports groups and extracurricular activities and school activities. So we’ve seen the numbers of guides decline over time, and, of course, with the drop in membership comes the drop in income. That has led to the situation with Otimai in that the Girl Guides Association have found themselves the owners of property and are in charge of property that is very expensive to run and maintain.

But I just thought as a comparison with girl guides—if any of you remember Scouts and one of the big fund-raisers they used to do—when I was putting these notes together, I recalled with some fondness they would tow a trailer around town and knock on doors and collect empty drink bottles because they could cash them in. So that was a major fund-raiser for Scouts. We had a local bottling plant, and so they would buy back their empty bottles—a great fund-raiser.

My folks had a dairy and I would work in the dairy. On the weekends, we had this enterprising young man that would come in and he would sell us his four or five or six bottles, and he’d swap that for lollies. In those days you could get four wine gums for a cent, so, actually, their bottles went a long way. But what we didn’t know was this enterprising young man was going around to the garage where we stored our empty bottles and bringing them back around the front and selling them to us several times a weekend. I don’t think he was a Scout.

But the land that we’re talking about today is tied up with the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Act that went into law in 1942. It governs the girl guides and, as Duncan Webb has mentioned, there are two clauses in there that have caused conflict, which has led to the bill being in the House today: sections 4 and 6.

The Wilson family donated the land, and, unfortunately, the trust deed that the Wilson family set up has the clause “in perpetuity” in it, so it created a bit of tension between the girl guides Act and the trust deed that gifted the land to the Girl Guides Association. The Otimai land, of course, is now running into disrepair and costing girl guides a lot of money, and in order to clear it up they had a couple of options. They could have taken this and got a court ruling on it, but there was no guarantee of the outcome of that and it was going to be an expensive exercise. So the simplest way was to bring it to Parliament and have the Act amended.

It is the intention of the National Party to support this bill, but to select committee, because there are a few things that we just need to be careful about and make sure that we have a bit of oversight over. The reason I’m a little bit cautious about it is because I’ve seen other national bodies that have relied on fund-raising, they have relied on communities to buy property, to run it, to maintain it, to train their leaders and their supervisors, and then, as populations go up and down, head office will step in if it does go into decline and they will sell that property, and although it has been bought by local funds and fund-raising, they have no legal ability to prevent the sale.

So I think what we’ve got here is an opportunity to ensure that this bill is fine-tuned so that it includes some safeguards for local communities if local land is going to be sold. I think that is a very responsible position for us to take. We want to hear from girl guides from across New Zealand, because this is, in effect, their property that the Girl Guides Association wants to sell. But I also think it would be appropriate for us to invite any descendants of the Wilson family to share their views on the disposal of this land.

So we will support it to select committee, and then we will work with the submitters and take guidance from them about whether we support this further, because I think it would be a travesty if we enabled legislation that enabled a head office of a national organisation carte blanche to go out and sell property that really is the property of its members. Although they may be elected to those roles, I think it is responsible for us to ensure that any sales are agreed to by the whole membership.

We support it for first reading. I commend the bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

It is my honour to take this call for this simple piece of very enabling legislation. The Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) wants to discharge its duty to promote the welfare of the New Zealand branch in the best interests of the girls and young women it serves, and has been asked to serve in statute. Recently, the association has attempted to do just that. To ensure the long-term viability of the girl guides in New Zealand, they have sought to dispose of long held and beloved property that has become uneconomic to hold. They aren’t in the financial position to afford the luxury of holding property that operates at a deficit.

In attempting this, they have discovered that, as we have already heard, there is inconsistency between section 4 and section 6 of the Act. This bill clarifies the powers of the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Act 1942 to allow it to dispose of property that it deems “necessary or desirable for promoting the welfare” of its organisation and the young women it serves. I appreciate the concerns that have been raised, but we can be confident that the Girl Guides Association will use these powers wisely. We know that the Girl Guides Association is steeped in tradition. It has proven over the years to also be nimble and remain relevant to young women in New Zealand over many decades and generations.

I didn’t need to google this association, because I stand proudly here as a woman who has been shaped by my time as a girl guide—

💬 Glen Bennett: Got your badge.

Badges! My love for the bush came from the opportunities afforded by a really enthusiastic girl guide leader. That troop leader, she packed us off to camp in all weather, all conditions, with such enthusiasm that we embraced it. It was wonderful. My parents provided me with wonderful opportunities throughout my childhood, but going camping in the bush wasn’t one of them.

So the equity of access and opportunity provided by the association is one that I’m really, really proud to say that I was able to enjoy. Being prepared was pretty important. We learnt planning and execution with precision. It meant our mess tent ran smoothly. It meant that even as we slept under the very rare Waikato downpour in our canvas tents—yes, I’m that old—we remained warm and dry.

The first time I experienced the power of international relations was in 1982 at Jamboree in Rotorua, when I spent a lot of time talking to women for the first time, for me, from other countries. The confidence that comes with testing yourself physically and emotionally, and the satisfaction you feel when you finally get to drop your pack after a six-hour tramp is powerful. I’m pretty sure my ability to persevere through adversity was partly honed while learning to dig the perfect latrine. My camp blanket and the badges that I sewed upon it were so treasured that I buried my dog in it. Today, there aren’t so many latrines being dug. There are a few more space camps and tech camps and eco-warriors and leadership expositions. The opportunities to experience community service are still there.

Another example of a nimble and progressive association that I need to bring to the House does regard our beloved girl guide biscuits. As the member suggested, after six years of selling door to door, it was decided it was no longer a viable proposition, but I’m pleased to report to the member for Rongotai that they were able to pivot, and you can now pick up a packet at your local supermarket at the moment. So grab a packet or two—we’ll see you at caucus, OK?

I urge you to support this simple bill so our beloved Girl Guides Association can continue to develop resilient women who serve and lead for New Zealand. I commend the bill to the House.

Kia ora. Tēnā koe e te Māngai. GirlGuiding New Zealand has been a staple of communities across Aotearoa since it was established in 1907. From the beginning, they have always been far more than purveyors of fine biscuits, much as we have loved those biscuits over the years. They offer a range of programmes for Pippins, Brownies, Guides, and Rangers, under their vision to “empower girls to take action to change the world”, as noted by my colleague Maureen Pugh. They provide a “supportive place to grow confident, adventurous girls who are ready to be tomorrow’s leaders”, and this is so they can “contribute to their communities and form friendships in a safe and positive environment”. One particular programme of theirs I was very interested in was for National Conservation Week, where girls learn about the environment in their communities and what they can do to contribute to society.

Since the Greens have a core value of non-violence, we also commend the girl guide movement for their longstanding commitment to peace and the theme they chose of “Stand Together for Peace” for World Thinking Day 2021. That is a particularly appropriate theme, as WAGGGS, or the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Skites, Scouts—not “Skites”; I think that’s not a girl guide brand. WAGGGS and the World Organization of the Scout Movement have been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. They were nominated by a Norwegian MP from the Scout Movement because—and I quote—“At a time when our world is threatened by so many international challenges, be [they] climate, wars or the pandemics, … We need to offer young people a chance to rally around a set of common values and the belief in service, not only to one’s own community, but to international society.”

Most organisations in this country can do a remit and change their constitutions at their annual general meeting. It is quite standard for legal entities—be it a constitution, trust deeds—or for anybody who owns property to be able to dispose of it, regardless of how that property was obtained. Whether they bought it themselves or whether they fund-raised, it is now theirs. For GirlGuiding New Zealand, however, to dispose of their own property to do their own work, they need our help. This is a simple and practical bill, and I commend it to the House. Kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a real pleasure to stand today and talk on this bill, and I’m really grateful that this will come to the Social Services and Community Committee. I think, in light of the contribution from our colleague Maureen Pugh across the House, we’re going to have a very interesting and worthwhile select committee process. I also want to acknowledge your thoughts in saying to the wider community that we’d love to hear from girl guides, because actually we really would, and it will make it a much more thorough and enjoyable process if we can hear from those girl guides. So thank you, Maureen, for your contribution.

However, I have to acknowledge my colleague Dr Duncan Webb. Now, Dr Duncan Webb noted that it was International Women’s Day this week, and it’s a happy coincidence, but I want to acknowledge and recognise the member as an ally to women and for bringing this bill to the House. Often what happens is we have women bringing bills specifically about women or girls to this House. So I just want to acknowledge the member Dr Duncan Webb for doing this private bill.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Good on you, Dunc.

Yeah, thanks, Duncan—Dr Webb, I should say. Now, I was not a girl guide—

💬 Simeon Brown: Neither was I.

I’m pleased to hear that, Simeon, although I’m sure you were allowed to be. I was not a girl guide, and let me tell you a very sad story about why I was not a girl guide. I wanted to be a Scout. I wanted to be a Scout because there were all sorts of exciting things that happened, and I really didn’t feel that guides met my needs. So I went along to talk to the local scouting club, and they denied me access because I was a girl. I was a young girl and I got denied access. So, instead of going back to girl guides and going, “Hey, I got denied access. I’m back here.”, I sulked, and I didn’t join girl guides either.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: That’s the spirit.

Thank you; it isn’t really the spirit at all. Actually, looking back, looking now at the mission of girl guides, I’m looking at it going, “Really, I think I really missed out on something amazing.” You know, this mission to empower girls to take action to change their world—hey, I’m all about that. I’m all about that. I volunteered across a whole pile of organisations. So I just would like to acknowledge that for those young people out there who are interested in joining the Girl Guides Association, it’s a modern organisation now, and I encourage you. I also want to encourage people to go online to girlguidingnz.org.nz if you want to volunteer to support the girl guide movement. There are often lots of opportunities to do these things, and I’d really like to encourage people to do so.

Essentially, this bill does—I’m still having some difficulty with my eyesight, so I still have things blown up. [Holds up oversized printout of bill] This bill is a one-page bill. It’s not very extensive. It does exactly what it says it should do on the cover, and that is to give this corporation the power to dispose of property. Essentially, it’s a private bill because it needs to be a change to the legislation to support that.

So I think it’s going to be a particularly interesting piece of legislation to work on. I would like to encourage the member Dr Duncan Webb to perhaps table some girl guide biscuits at our select committee process. We’re all very keen on the old girl guide biscuits, so that’s a shout-out to Dr Duncan Webb to table some girl guide biscuits for us. But, essentially, this bill helps and enables the organisation to continue to operate in a way that is financially viable for them. It is a very small change in legislation, but it’s actually quite meaningful, and, as a consequence, I think we will give the select committee process all its due energy and time, and we will, if need be, make it better. We look forward very much to hearing from the submitters in regards to this bill. I commend it to the House.

When I was looking at this I was quite excited—not that I was involved with girl guides, but for seven years I volunteered with a similar organisation that deals with youth cadets. These programmes are so important for our communities. They bring children together from lots of different demographics, and they learn to play together and interact with each other in a way that sometimes schools don’t provide, because of the different demographics. Schools tend to have the same people, whereas this combines children from lots of different areas and allows them to become friends. They encourage our children to become good citizens, to have confidence, and to become our new leaders—our next leaders that may be standing here one day. It gives them a sense of belonging, and it’s a place where they know that anyone is welcome, and that they are safe and that they have a place that they can go where they can just be themselves.

So I think the Girl Guides Association provide such an important service for our communities. So when an organisation is held back by a law that takes away the power to make decisions that are in their best interests, I think we should be having a look at that.

I’ve been to Otimai. I’ve even stayed at Otimai on a leadership course with St. John Youth, and it is a wonderful, beautiful place. But it is large, and it is expensive, and if they can no longer afford to maintain this property, I don’t see why a law should hold them to that. So ACT will support the first reading of this bill.

It’s my pleasure to take a call on this bill, the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill—quite a mouthful. I think it’s fair to say that this bill seeks, essentially, to help the Girl Guides Association do what they do best: help our young women learn and grow, without unnecessary legislative burdens. I too bet that everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand has had some form of contact with this fabulous organisation, whether as a member, as I can very proudly put my hand up and recall—as well as my colleague based in Taranaki - King Country, who painted us several lovely pictures of her very fond memories of being a member. Perhaps we remember the organisation from being a team leader when people were needed. There were plenty of people who did help out and guide and help our young women to develop and flourish. Perhaps we remember being a patron, or simply a consumer of the much-mentioned fantastic girl guide biscuits.

Going back a step or two to that concept of team leader, listening to other people talk and recall some of their memories just reminded me of what a good thing my mum had going on. She was a volunteer for the Brownies and she volunteered to assess the cooking badge and the washing badge, and almost every day after school I can recall some person at my house cooking a sausage and an egg and washing socks. My mother didn’t volunteer for many other organisations, but it has just dawned on me that she had this one pretty well sussed out.

If we get back to this bill and what it’s doing, it’s a minor change which will actually be of major benefit to the organisation. It is, essentially, correcting an inconsistency and allowing the girl guides—as other people have already said—to dispose of what is at this stage an unviable sort of asset.

I just reiterate again that this asset in particular includes the property at Otimai which has been used by the guides, apparently, since 1927 and owned since 1944. Many, many thousands of New Zealand women no doubt do hold cherished memories from their time at camps and events at this property, but we remember the girl guides is a charity, and it’s important that they have their ability to free up funding and reinvest as they see fit.

When you think about this minor change which will be a major benefit to an organisation, eventually correcting an inconsistency in allowing the girl guides to dispose of their assets, it’s very on-brand. This Government consistently seeks to introduce sensible legislation that allows businesses and charities alike to thrive, and this bill is just another example of that.

So I think it’s fair to say that we wish the Girl Guides Association a long, sustainable future. This bill, again, goes a long way to ensuring that the organisation remains one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most beloved and valuable institutions, and on the basis of that I am happy to commend this bill to the House.

Kia ora koutou. I rise with enthusiasm to support the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill. In my hours of research preparing for this short call this afternoon, I looked into our family history. A long history we have, and I looked at my grandmother and my great-grandmother and my mother and our family, and I discovered that none of us, including myself or my brothers, have been members of the Girl Guides Association of New Zealand, and I apologise for that. We were busy doing other things, but I’ll get to that later.

So why am I standing here in support of this bill? What information and what knowledge do I bring to the House this afternoon?

💬 Angie Warren-Clark: Your love of the girl guide biscuit.

Our love of the girl guide biscuits. I have to mention the girl guide biscuits, because it seems like a requisite we all have to do in this bill today. But I’ve been part of many community organisations over the years, been part of many volunteer groups, many charities, and a number of incorporated societies and trusts, and I know the challenges that they face. I know the hardship and the struggle to get volunteers in this day and age. The financial challenges when it comes to finding a treasurer who’s willing to put their hand up, or be the last person who comes into the room that afternoon and they’re, therefore, voted on as treasurer. There’s the financial challenges; there’s the volunteer challenges, which is time. We’re living in a society where we seem to be very time-poor, or that’s the narrative that comes out often, and it’s a challenge to find leaders. It’s a challenge to find leaders willing to give their time, willing to run groups like the girl guides and to be committed to the trust, to be treasurers, and to do those types of things.

💬 Hon Simon Bridges: Why didn’t I join?

So we need to do all we can—well, we’re hoping to change legislation shortly so that you can, but anyway we’ll get there shortly. But we need to do all that we can to ensure and enable volunteers are able to do their work for free for things like allowing assets to be freed up in terms of finances. So that is why I think we should be supporting this piece of legislation and why we should be supporting the girl guides.

Now, for me, I was busy growing up in the Salvation Army, and while we were busy doing our community work and wearing our uniforms, blowing our trumpets, and singing in the choir, I do note that the girl guides were busy volunteering, doing their community service. They were tramping and camping. They were, I’m guessing, building fires and having damper by the fire. They were doing their community service, fund-raising with those delicious biscuits, sewing badges upon badges upon badges on blankets—well some people were, and others had less, but that’s another story.

So the girl guides’ mission—which we’ve already heard a couple of times this afternoon—is a wonderful mission. It’s “to empower girls to take action to change their world”, and we live in a society where we all need to be taking that up in terms of how do we empower each of us to change our world. So I think it’s amazing that the girl guides are after all these years, not only in New Zealand but around the world, doing what they can to change their world, which obviously changes ours. So I want to say thank you to Dr Duncan Webb for bringing this private bill to the House, ensuring that the girl guides can enact their mission and can ensure that volunteers have time and space but also the funds and resources to serve the young women of New Zealand.

Being a member of the community services and community select committee and social services—and I’m the deputy, so I should know what it’s called, shouldn’t I?—I’m really proud that we’re going to be able to discuss this and unpack it more. Not the biscuits, but this piece of legislation. It’s been nice to see many members of the select committee in the House today, and I look forward—we have a morning tea roster, don’t we?

💬 Angie Warren-Clark: We do.

Challenge—hopefully—accepted as to what will that morning tea roster be when it comes to us unpacking this piece of legislation.

So, for me, I am a supporter of the community sector, I’m a supporter of our wāhine, and I want to support this piece of legislation. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s great to speak on this bill about the Girl Guides Association, and to help the girl guides in this way. It’s very hard running a volunteer organisation, as we’ve just heard, and to do good and also do well by your members. So this bill helps the Girl Guides Association economically in terms of rearranging things and land and the like.

I wasn’t a girl guide, although I see the Scouts—I was a Scout—and the girl guides were both founded by Robert Baden-Powell, I think that’s right to say. I still have very fond memories of being a Scout and the little games we played and things we did and learning the promise. I promised to do my best, to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people, and to keep the Cub law. The Cub law—no, I can’t remember that, to be honest, but—

💬 Angie Warren-Clark: What about the—[Imitates Scout salute]

Yeah, I had a toggle and the salute to the akela, who was a—I was going to say she was a kind woman. Actually, she was a battleaxe, but let’s not go there—she might be watching. But I learnt a lot, and the same was true of the girl guides: good values, and that’s for sure.

Of course, we know about the biscuits and the girl guides. I suspect, actually, that if you talked to most New Zealanders, they probably wouldn’t know a lot about them and their values and the purposes and so on, which we’ve heard about from other members, but they would remember and know the biscuit. We’ve actually still got some from their latest fund-raising effort at home. I’ve always found they’ve got just the right sweetness, just the right doughiness, and just the right crunch. They’re an excellent biscuit. I don’t know about where they’ve gone recently, where they’ve now got a chocolate bottom—probably the only thing about me, growing up, that wasn’t chocolate. But, anyway, we won’t go there.

I think this is a good bill. It’s good to practically help the girl guides rearrange their position so that they can be viable into the future.

It gives me great pleasure to talk on this bill today, because my Great-Granny Pam—it would be remiss of me not to talk about her. When my Granny Pam passed away at the age of 97, I was given the memorabilia of her being a girl guide, and I have a story to share with you from much of her memorabilia, because she collected every single cutting during her time as a girl guide. She was a captain of the girl guides.

I would like to take you back to the summer of 1960 in Hawke’s Bay, where the story begins. “Girl guides spend successful week under canvas. Girl guide activities in Central Hawke’s Bay reached a peak during the past week when a special camp was held near Waipukurau, the first of its kind ever held in the district. It was a test camp to allow Mrs P Hewitt”—that’s my Granny Pamela Hewitt—“the commander and captain, to qualify for a camper’s licence. Twenty guides and four guiders pitched their camp last Monday on Mr N J Hewitt’s property.”—that’s Great-Granddad Norm—“Girls were present from Waipawa, Otane, Flemington, and Waipukurau troops.”

Now, the story goes on, and I won’t read it all to you, but there were a few snippets that I thought you would enjoy. One under the subheading “Spirit and principles”: “The very point of having a camp is to keep the spirit of the camp alive, and many tangibles that were concerned with”—including how to pitch a tent. Alongside that was how to ensure that the camp ran smoothly: “Under Mrs Hewitt’s direction, the girls all enjoyed a very active and varied programme. The call for cooks and firelighters went out each day at 6.45 a.m., and this was followed by the flag-breaking assembly at 7.40 a.m. and breakfast followed. The camp inspection”—now, we can imagine that was a very serious part of the day—“was taken part at 10 a.m., followed by a range of activities, and then they had a camp comfort to enjoy until tea at 5.30. A general clean-up followed, and then camp prepared for the night. The final activities of the day were singing around the campfire at 7.30 p.m., with lights out at 9 p.m. A tea hike by the river and an organised expedition were among the great attractions for the guides.”

That was my story, and I’ll carry on with the debate—thank you, Madam Speaker.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Just before the member does, it would be good if the member were to refer to some of the contents in the bill at hand. Thank you.

Yes, I will—I absolutely will. I just thought it would be good to take you back to January 1960, in Waipukurau.

So, if we talk about the reason for the bill, I also spent today speaking to a friend of mine who has two daughters in the girl guides, and she was talking about the reason for why we need to ensure that the bill goes ahead, because it’s all about the health and wellbeing and sustainability of the girl guide movement. When she talked to me about this, the thing that she told me was that there are approximately 7,000 members in New Zealand at the moment—

💬 Hon Simon Bridges: How many?

—and of those—yes. The membership is “strong and steady”, were her words, and it’s because of this, she said, when I talked to her about the olden days and how things were done, that they still have those same values. It’s those values that we must sustain in the whole movement of the girl guides to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to continue with it.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

The question is, That the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill be considered by the Social Services and Community Committee.

Motion agreed to.

Bill referred to the Social Services and Community Committee.

I declare the House in committee for consideration of the Holidays (Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage) Amendment Bill (No 2).