Release of the COGS Profile 2008/09; National COGS Committee

Tena tatou e hui nei i tenei ra. Tena koutou nga rangatira o Waikato. Nga mihi ki a koutou ki a Tuheitia hoki. Tena tatou katoa

I am honoured to be with your all this afternoon, to bring to you the best wishes of your Minister, Hon Tariana Turia.  Tariana has undergone major surgery and is recuperating at home.  She was so keen to support this gathering today, that she asked me, as the local member for Hamilton West, to be with you, on her behalf; and to be able to present her greetings in person.

It is with much pleasure that I congratulate the members of the National COGS Committee for the endless energy and effort you invest in supporting our communities.

I want to mihi to Sandra Terewi from my own area - Whanganui/Waimarino/Rangitikei - and who is chair of the National Committee; Carl Pederson deputy chair and chair of Kahungunu ki Heretaunga local distribution committee; Sue King the Hauraki Chair; Sumaria Beaton from Southland and Brent Maru from Nelson Bays.

The Community Organisation Grants Scheme is a really important way of being able to give something back in return to those organisations and individuals who we know are the very heart and soul of our communities.

I've always thought the acronym for the scheme, COGS, is a clever play on words because it reminds me of those organisations who keep the community running.    It's the groups who keep the wheel turning; each action they take, in collaboration with all the actions of other organisations, keeps us in motion.

It is great to know that there are people attending this meeting today from the four local distribution committees serving the Waikato and Coromandel areas.  You have a key role in the process of assessing applications and distributing grants.   It is never an easy task, to make decisions when often you are spoilt for choice from the large range of organisations worthy of all of our support.

Your hard work - and that too, of the National COGS committee, and the Local Government and Community Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, is vital to maintain the quality we have come to associate with the COGS programme.  Processing the thousands of applications is essential to the success of COGS.

I want to return to the very essence of this scheme, as a community based grant-making scheme.   The work of COGS is basically to provide grants to non-profit community-owned and community-driven organisations that provide social services and projects within their communities.  

It's been doing this now for some 23 years which in itself is a major achievement.  I have never been a great fan of pilots and model projects- I believe that if we really want to provide a secure foundation for our future as a nation, we need to invest in creating and maintaining sustainable communities and the COGS scheme is a great way to do this. 

COGS grants help our communities groups to stay alive with funding for running expenses, and programme costs.  Last year, 3,603 community organisations throughout New Zealand received a COGS grant, between them receiving a total of fourteen million dollars.

And for those who like the numbers, $1,163,740 of this was distributed to 359 organisations in the greater Waikato and Coromandel areas.

But it has always been about more than the monetary value of the grants.

The support from COGS is an important means of recognizing and celebrating the unique identities and values across our communities, our hapu and iwi, across Aotearoa.

There is nothing more uplifting than sharing the successes of our communities, and it is therefore with much pleasure that I now launch the COGS Profile 2008/09.

The Profile features some excellent examples of community organisations that have benefited from COGS.  These illustrate the diversity of organisations and services that receive COGS grants, including a very special story of an organisation from here in Hamilton entitled Filling a gap.

Seven thousand copies of the Profile are being distributed to councils and libraries throughout New Zealand.  It will also be available through regional offices of the Department of Internal Affairs and on the Department's website.

I want to thank the members of the National COGS Committee for all you do to support our communities.  I want to thank the COGS community volunteers who are the very life-force of this scheme.  

And of course we all recognize the dedication and the commitment of more than a million New Zealanders who are involved in some form of voluntary work in their communities. Almost every sector of our lives is richer for their efforts - from sports, recreation, arts, culture and heritage to emergency and social services, health, education, conservation and the environment.

They sustain us; they inspire us; they enable our communities to thrive - and today is an opportunity to say thank you for the difference you make to our lives.

Na reira, tena tatou katoa.