Plunket conference, Dunedin

A speech to celebrate Plunket's centenary Wednesday 16 May 2007

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Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today on the value of communities and the importance of NGOs.

It is a topic I am very keen to address.

But before I do so, I cannot let this centennial conference of Plunket pass without a few comments about your unique and most extraordinary organisation.

On 14 May 1907 Sir Frederic Truby King addressed a meeting at the Dunedin Town Hall on the promotion of health of women and children, and out of this the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children was born.

It aimed to 'inculcate a lofty view of the responsibilities of maternity', promote breast feeding, train nurses in maternal and infant welfare and educate parents in domestic hygiene.

The fledgling society attracted the patronage of Lady Victoria Plunket, wife of the then Governor, hence the famous name by which you are known to this day.

Initially, Truby King sought to inspire upper-class women to devote their energies to promoting the cause of child welfare.

Committees were formed throughout the country, local clinics were opened and nurses trained in infant welfare started visiting mothers in their homes.

King also took ailing infants into his holiday home at Karitane, and thus began the first of a number of Karitane hospitals, and another great New Zealand institution, the Karitane Nurse.

Even so, I doubt he could possibly have imagined, even in his most optimistic moments, the impact he would he having on the lives of millions of future New Zealanders.

His foresight and compassion has spawned what is arguably the most powerful and influential organisation in New Zealand, even to this very day.

Almost everyone has been a Plunket baby, and as a parent, you quickly learn that while many things about you may be changing, one of the enduring constants is Plunket, epitomised by the Plunket Nurse, and in more recent times the availability through thick and thin of Plunketline.

The Plunket Nurse is an iconic figure in our history - I still remember Mrs Anderson, the Plunket Nurse who came to our family in the late 1950s: tall and imposing in her white veil and cape, and authoritative in her manner and advice.

I remember too the Plunket Nurse attending my son in the mid 1980s, and telling my wife and me in no uncertain terms how unwise we were to be embarking on a Parliamentary trip to Europe with this nearly three month old child, who was just about to start consuming solids.

But if we insisted on this folly, we had to make sure we took plenty of cans of Watties' Apple Puree with us, notwithstanding the fact we were bound for Switzerland and France where solid foods for babies were presumably not unknown.

So, off we set with our supplies of apple puree, only to discover a range of gourmet baby foods that left the poor old apple puree far behind and largely uneaten.

I tell this endearing story not to criticise the Plunket Nurse - I would not be so foolhardy - but to illustrate the respect in which they are held, and the extent to which new parents rely on their advice.

Plunket forms a bond with parents and children that is probably only second to the strength of the parental bond.

That is why so many of us are proud to call ourselves Plunket babies, even today, and why Plunket continues to enjoy such a strong place in the affections of the New Zealand community.

Over the years, Plunket has been blessed by some outstanding leaders, who have typified the commitment and compassion that so inspired Truby King, and which has kept Plunket at the forefront of public consideration for a century.

In this regard, I pay my tribute to your retiring National President, Kaye Crowther, with whom I have had the pleasure of working on so many issues over the last four years.

Kaye personifies the Plunket virtues: compassion, determination, a passion for the wellbeing of mothers and children, and a respect for the dignity and worth of each person.

Kaye has been a persuasive advocate for Plunket's causes over her term, and is widely admired and respected for her contribution.

It is extremely appropriate that later today, as Kaye's presidency draws to a close, Parliament will pass by an overwhelming margin the legislation to stop the wanton assault on children that has for too long been tolerated under the guise of smacking.

I think Plunket's staunch advocacy of change, and the dignified way in Kaye led that campaign, contributed greatly to the dramatic turn of events on this Bill in recent weeks.

At a time when MPs were being besieged from all quarters with all sorts of views on the issue, many of which were extreme and bizarre to say the least, the one constant reassurance those of us who were supporting the legislation had was the fact that Plunket was fully behind it.

And what more mainstream and child and family committed organisation could there be than Plunket?

So, Kaye, many thanks for your leadership, your wisdom and your passion, and our very best wishes to you for your future.

To Carol Becker, my best wishes as incoming National President.

You have mighty shoes to fill, but you have a great organisation behind you, who will help and support you every step of the way, and who will ensure you continue in the great tradition of Plunket leaders.

All of which leads very neatly to the comments I want to make about the value of communities and the importance of NGOs.

The great contemporary philosopher, writer and broadcaster, the Commonwealth's Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, makes the point that for over 50 years conventional political wisdom on both the left and the right has been that the two great institutions of society are the market and the state.

He points out that while these two institutions have carried on their unyielding fight for supremacy, we have almost forgotten the third and in many senses the most critical element - the family and the community, the places where we find identity, meaning, security and trust.

He says this happened almost unintentionally from actions taken for the highest motives in what he describes as "the wave of collective sentiment and shared determination to build a more compassionate society after the terrible suffering of the Second World War."

While Sacks is writing mainly about Britain, I think his analysis bears translation to New Zealand in the birth of the Welfare State in the aftermath of the Great Depression.

The well-intended social engineering unleashed by this process has weakened civil associations - like families, communities and churches - which have hitherto mediated the conflict between the market and the state, the individual and the government.

As Sacks points out, when the tide turned against big government, as it did in New Zealand in the 1980s, these institutions were so fragile they were easy prey to the dominance of the state being replaced by the dominance of the market.

Over the last few years, we have seen the reassertion of the role and primacy of families and communities.

Now some may be tempted to view this as no more than an export of George Bush's values revolution in America and therefore be deeply wary of giving too much air to the burgeoning role of families and communities in this country, lest we be similarly captured by extreme groups, often with a fundamentalist religious agenda.

However, I think such a view takes these right wing family values organisations far too seriously and gives them far more attention than they deserve, as well as overlooking a more basic reality.

Family is the most precious and basic unit of our society.

It is not the invention of conservative moralists, but the institution that rears, nurtures and loves our future generations in a way that no other institution can.

Family is an inherent part of humanity, not an ideological statement the way some would have it.

The one thing common to all us - whatever our age, background, creed, or circumstances - is family.

We all come from a family, and we all have a family, even though its form and function may differ according to circumstances.

But it is that common link between all of us that makes Norman Kirk's words of over 30 years ago so powerful and enduring.

He said, "The principal function of a government must be to ensure social and economic justice for all families, to protect their physical security and well being in such a way as to assist parents to achieve an independent, secure and happy life. All social reforms must be judged by the standard of whether they assist the family or not. If they assist the family they are good: if they handicap the family they are bad."

He was right in the early 1970s, and remains right today, and his statement forms the basis of my commitment as the leader of a party, often styled as the family party.

I want to see the position of all families and parents, whatever their form or circumstance, upheld and strengthened, because all our families are a part of the tapestry we weave together in a social and material sense as the communities that make up our country.

The interaction of families of many shapes and sizes builds both communities and the institutions that make those communities strong and vibrant.

And these are the antidote to the malaise Sacks identifies as crippling and stultifying contemporary society.

They, not the abstract concepts of the state and the market, are the dynamic elements that help our society progress.

To flourish, families and communities need to be adaptive and flexible, open not closed, and passionate about promoting the worth and wellbeing of each of their individual members.

Over the last 100 years Plunket has typified all of these characteristics in New Zealand's evolving society.

Your values have not changed significantly, but you have astutely kept apace of wider changes in society and public attitudes, and consequently have retained your relevance over the generations.

You have shed Truby King's upper class pretensions and inhibitions to work with all New Zealand families, through your Karitane family centres and family education programmes, and your general advocacy and support across all New Zealand communities, but your commitment to mothers and children is unshaken.

Voluntary or non-government organisations are a potent reflection of social development in New Zealand, and provide great confidence in our ability to develop as a society where the pivotal influence of families and communities is more recognised in the future.

It is estimated that there about 90,000 such organisations active in New Zealand today, in sports, recreation, the arts, culture, heritage, education, emergency and social services, environment and conservation.

As individuals, we donate about $356 million to these organisations each year, with much more being donated by businesses, and individuals who donate goods, services and time.

By any count, these are extraordinary figures, and reflect a deeply caring society, that wants to see the voluntary and charitable sector flourish.

In part, this is a reflection of the collaborative nature of New Zealanders - it is often said that the first thing a group of Kiwis do when they get together is form a committee - but I think it is also a recognition of a wider reality, one that Plunket exemplifies.

I think New Zealanders are instinctively averse to letting the government have too much say in their lives - the section 59 debate shows that to some extent - and would strongly prefer to either resolve the issue themselves, or turn to the community around them, the people like them to whom they can relate, for help and encouragement.

To go back to Sacks for a moment, there is a view that while the government and its services are well meaning, the community and non-government sectors are likely to be more nimble and in touch with the feelings of the average person.

All of which persuaded me a long time ago that we need to do more to promote this sector and to encourage support of it.

A practical step is to promote a greater culture of giving in our society.

To this end, I was pleased to release late last year, in my capacity as Minister of Revenue, a government discussion document on tax incentives for giving to charities and other non-profit organisations.

This arose from a specific provision in the confidence and supply agreement between the Labour Party and my party, United Future, to develop a new tax rebate regime for charities.

The response to the discussion document has been extremely positive, with many useful submissions coming forward.

The government has now had the chance to consider these, and I expect to be announcing our response imminently.

The reason I am so keen to promote a greater culture of giving in New Zealand is because of my conviction of the worth of the partnership between the community and organisations like Plunket to serve the public interest.

Your outstanding model of the last 100 years both sets a standard to build on and for other organisations to follow, and also is the primary vehicle by which we can reassert the power and value of families and communities in contemporary New Zealand.

At the outbreak of war in 1939, Michael Joseph Savage famously declared, "Where Britain goes, we go; where she stands, we stand."

Today, let me declare, "Where Plunket goes, we go; where she stands, we stand."

My heartfelt congratulations on your first 100 years, and my best wishes for the future.

ENDS

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