SociaLink Western Bay of Plenty met with the Minister of the Community and Voluntary Sector Priyancha Radhakrishnan, who was promoted to Cabinet this week.

They also met with Minister of Women and Internal Affairs Jan Tinetti who is also Associate Minister of Education and Minister of Women and Internal Affairs, Associate Minister of Education, and local Labour MP Angie Warren Clarke.local MPs.

SociaLink is the umbrella organisation for the region’s social agencies and charities.

The Minister of the Community and Voluntary Sector is also Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities and Youth, Associate Minister of Social Development and Employment and Workplace Relations and Safety.

SociaLink general manager Liz Davies outlined the role of SociaLink, local social issues and issues community organisations were facing.

Community Insights manager Liz Flaherty showed the Ministers the newly launched social and community organisations dashboard designed by Community Insights, which enables better understanding of the local charities operating in the Western Bay of Plenty.

Minister Radhakrishnan discussed a community-led development fund, Lotteries funding, and her role in promoting volunteers. She also discussed work that the Ministry of Social Development is doing around social cohesion in response to the March 15 mosque attack, and the review of the Charities Act.

Liz Davies said the meeting with the Ministers was helpful in outlining the many issues social agencies and charities are facing.

“They were particularly interested in the impact anti money laundering legislation had for not for profits trying to open a bank account or change signatories, and that food prices are highest in Tauranga of all places in New Zealand,” she said.

“The evident prosperity in Tauranga masks significant areas of high deprivation and high levels of income inequality. Tauranga is a tale of two cities and we suspect that Tauranga does not get as much Central Government funding as it should because of its perceived prosperity.”

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