Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand 40th birthday celebrations

I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.  Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the morning (Sign)

I then specifically greet you: Glenys Ashby, President of Citizen’s Advice Bureaux New  Zealand and your fellow board members; Kelly Dalton, Chief Executive of CAB New Zealand; Hon Dame Catherine Tizard, predecessor as Governor-General; Paul Muckleston, Chief Executive of Microsoft New Zealand; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

It has been a great pleasure to accept the invitation to attend the 40th anniversary celebrations of Citizen’s Advice Bureaux in New Zealand for reasons that will emerge.

Since taking on the Governor-General role four years and two months’ ago, my wife Susan and I have attended many celebrations for organisations marking significant milestones in their history in a great many places in our country. 

While all these groups continue to make a significant contribution to New Zealand’s social and cultural life, our knowledge of many of them prior to taking up the role was not extensive.

There is a select group, however, whom we know well and one of those is the CAB.  Susan worked for a 10 year period in the Wellington CAB after we moved to the Capital in 1995 and I was one of those lucky enough to be on the ground floor, as a minion, when the first one took its first steps in Ponsonby.

As many will know, the first CAB in New Zealand was founded not far away in next door Ponsonby in 1970.  Peter Harwood had visited Britain where CABs had been established for some time and brought the idea back here.

When one sees Grey Lynn and Ponsonby and Freeman’s Bay today, where urban gentrification has transformed many things, it is hard to believe that 40 years ago they were quite different suburbs with many fewer prestige vehicles and many more shops like dairies, hardware, butchers and fruit and vegetable retailers in them.

So it was that in June 1970, the Auckland City Council appointed Peter Harwood, a former social worker, as New Zealand’s first local authority community adviser.  The decision was, as Ian Dougherty writes in the organisation’s 25 year anniversary publication, “an inspired choice.”

Long conscious of the community needs in Ponsonby, Peter pushed ahead with his brief to establish advice centres and the first CAB, staffed with trained volunteers, opened on 5 October 1970, the Ponsonby Community Centre in which it was housed having been opened by the Rt Hon Duncan McIntyre, on 26 September.

As a part of establishing that first CAB, a group of lawyers were asked to act as on-call legal advisers.  I was tapped on the shoulder in that regard by lawyers Piers Davies and Robert Ludbrook.  As one who lived in Hepburn St, Freeman’s Bay, and had grown up in Ponsonby and been a student at Richmond Rd School, I was happy to do this. 

I was then a newly married and newly qualified lawyer, working in the Crown Solicitor’s Office and the CAB gave me a good exposure to a variety of general legal issues, from tenancy disputes to consumer law.  There was also great camaraderie and in my case that led to association with a number of local characters who will be remembered like Gil Denzyer, Kingi Ihaka, Gerhard Rosenberg and Bruce Hucker and eventually on to membership of the Freeman’s Bay Community Committee where our very own city councillor was Mrs Cath Tizard!

From that first CAB in Ponsonby, the idea rapidly spread throughout the country some growing out of earlier advice services and some funded by local government.  Such was the growth that a national association, was established three years later, to give the CAB movement an integrated voice.

Citizen’s Advice Bureaux now operate out of 92 sites nationwide with some 2,600 volunteers.  Whereas the Ponsonby CAB dealt with just 30 inquiries in its first month, in the last financial year just ended, New Zealand’s CABs dealt with a staggering 650,000 client inquiries, either through telephone inquiries or at face-to-face sessions.  CAB’s volunteers really have taken to heart the observation of Mahatma Gandhi that “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”!

CABs provide direct advice to thousands of people every year, and are effectively community hubs that link people to many other organisations, often making appointments for clients to obtain budget advice, legal advice or to engage with justices of the peace.  I understand, for example, that the CAB sites in Christchurch have been busy dealing with a host of inquiries following the earthquake on September 4.

Just as the Christchurch earthquake has reminded us all of the potentially devastating power of the earth on which we live, so too has CAB, like many community organisations, realised that it needed to face the other seismic upheaval that is changing the way we work and connect, namely the internet.

Today the organisation will launch a new website and national database, the culmination of a three year process of change.  This new resource, supported by the Government and many public and private partners, will significantly increase the accessibility and availability of the CAB service to New Zealanders.

By giving New Zealanders access to 40,000 organisations and services in the CAB community directory database, it should allow frontline volunteers to dedicate more time to face-to-face consultations.

I therefore want to acknowledge everyone who has donated time, money and goods to help bring this project to fruition.   As one can imagine, just the process of contacting each of these organisations and seeking their permission to place information online would have been a major undertaking in its own right. 

There is a Swedish proverb that says the best way to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.  With the launch of CAB’s new website, the help will literally be at everyone’s finger tips!

In conclusion, I wish to congratulate New Zealand’s citizen’s advice bureaux on the event of its 40th birthday and the imminent launch of its new website.  You are more than just an information or facilitation service.  You are, as Ian Dougherty rightly noted in the 25 year history, “a window on the community”, this being a description you can wear with honour.

And on what I hope is a suitable note of happiness on the occasion of your 40th birthday, I will close in New Zealand’s first language Māori, by offering everyone greetings and wishing everyone good health and fortitude in your endeavours.  No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.

To visit the new CAB website, click here