A Small Qango: Reminiscences of the Home Budgeting Advisory Committee of the Minister of Social Welfare 1978 - 1988

By Dave Mullan

This story of the HBAC has been put together by Dave Mullan who became involved in family budgeting in the 1970s. With Allan Mayall of Christchurch, he co-convened the first national meeting to consider forming a federation of budgeting services. But it had no funds, no resources and the only organisation was a small management group in Auckland.
In 1978 Dave was appointed to the Home Budgeting Advisory Committee of the Minister of Social Welfare. When the volunteer federation later replaced him after his term as national president, the Minister appointed him as a fifth member. He was one of only two members to serve for the full ten years of the committee’s life.
From the start, this small qango (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation) acquired a reputation for acting rather than merely talking. Its first decision was to authorise its own bank account–-normally the responsibility of the appropriate government department. The members then travelled all over the country and met people doing family budgeting at the flax roots level.

Through over 130 meetings and gatherings the committee developed resources to help volunteer budgeters in their work. It birthed a properly constituted national federation of the majority of budgeting services in the country. And it initiated the very substantial assistance that now flows from the public purse to the federation.

When its sudden death occurred at the hands of “qango killer”
Geoffrey Palmer in 1988 the then Director-General of Social Welfare, John Grant commented on its remarkable and distinctive achievements. He observed that someone really ought to write up its story.

This book is an attempt to do that. It describes the general sequence of events with the same light touch with which the HBAC fulfilled its mandate. It offers insights into the operations of a typical Qango and the sometimes tentative relationships that existed between Government and Voluntary Organisations in the '70s. It provides fascinating reading for budget advisors and volunteer workers who remember the bad old days when Family Budgeting groups struggled without adequate acknowledgement. This is the only complete record of the decade of the committee’s life.

It will also be of interest to anyone involved in present-day family budgeting and similar activities. This record may suggest to them that the current level of government funding support for today’s family budgeting operations was not always present. The financial assistance they enjoy for management, training and volunteers’ expenses was hard won with tact, ingenuity and compromise.

In her foreword, the CEO of NZFederation of Family Budgeting Services says, “It is vitally important for our organisation to remember and acknowledge our founding roots and to appreciate the efforts of all who came before us. Without the tireless and usually voluntary efforts of all those mentioned in this book we would not have the strong basis and support for what we are achieving here today.
“It is fascinating to look back and see that although we have come a long way and the amounts of money and names are different, many of the struggles and issues are exactly the same. By understanding where we have come from and what has gone before, we have a much stronger base of experience and impetus to move forward into the future.
“The only sad thing to acknowledge is the fact that we are still a service that is as desperately needed now as when the story in this book began. Grateful thanks from all at NZFFBS to everyone mentioned in this book and special thanks to Dave for his efforts in helping us all to remember.”
Raewyn Fox
CEO New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services (Inc.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Mullan
• Release date: Apr 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781877357176

Dave Mullan

Retired Presbyter of Methodist Church of New Zealand. Passionate pioneer in Local Shared Ministry, consultant in small churches, publisher of over 100 niche market books, producer of prosumer video, deviser of murder mystery dinners and former private pilot. I trained for the Methodist Ministry at Trinity Theological College and eventually completed MA, Dip Ed as well. Bev and I married just before my first appointment in Ngatea where our two children arrived. We went on to Panmure and Taumarunui. Longer terms followed at Dunedin Central Mission and the Theological College. During this time I was also involved as co-founder and second national President of Family Budgeting Services and adviser to the (government) Minister of Social Welfare. My final four years were part-time, developing the first Presbyterian or Methodist Local Shared Ministry unit in this country and promoting the concept overseas. Retirement has brought a whole lot more opportunities and challenges. We are now living in our own villa in Hibiscus Coast Residential Village.

Book preview

A Small Qango

An Account of The Home Budgeting Advisory Committee of the Minister of Social Welfare 1978—1988

Dave Mullan

e-Book edition, Smashwords 2015

ISBN 978-1-877357-17-6

ColCom Press

28/101 Red Beach Road,

Hibiscus Coast, Aotearoa-New Zealand 0932

[e-mail]

Licence Notes for Smashwords Edition, 2015

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A Qango?

Originally dedicated to the memory of Yvonne Hughes and her spirit of selfless service to the community, this book was published in 1991 as a record of those who worked with the Home Budgeting Advisory Committee over its lifetime. Only a few dozen copies were printed and all of those recipients knew only too well that a qango was a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation which was granted government funding to achieve a purpose that was not directly related to government activities. One famous qango was something to do with tax appeals for pig marketers and had allegedly been living high on the hog on the state purse with nothing much to show for it. Soon after the 1984 Labour Government swept into power Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer declared war on qangos. The HBAC was a short term survivor and was not decommissioned before it had accomplished its primary objectives.

The Committee’s logo of a family home morphed into a money box was dreamed up by some imaginative but now, alas, nameless person in the Department of Social Welfare. For the ebook, it was scanned from an old letterhead.

Limited numbers of the print edition are still available.

Geoffrey Palmer goes after the qangos (NZ Herald)

Table of Contents

Foreword

1 Notice of Meeting

2 Background to the Business

3 Correspondence

4 Matters Arising

5 Two Reports

6 The Consultants Re-entered a second time... 8.17 OK

7 The Auckland Affair

8 More Routine Business

9 The Budgeting Services Support Programme

10 Money Management and Budgeting Support

11 The Auckland Management Committee

12 Review of the Committee OK

13 Busy Times

14 Closure of the Meeting

15 Epilogue

About the Author

Foreword

Contributed by Raewyn Fox, Chief Executive Officer,

New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services (Inc.)

It is vitally important for our organisation to remember and acknowledge our founding roots and to appreciate the efforts of all who came before us.

Without the tireless and usually voluntary efforts of all those mentioned in this book we would not have the strong basis and support for what we are achieving here today.

It is fascinating to look back and see that although we have come a long way and the amounts of money and names are different, many of the struggles and issues are exactly the same. By understanding where we have come from and what has gone before, we have a much stronger base of experience and impetus to move forward into the future.

The only sad thing to acknowledge is the fact that we are still a service that is as desperately needed now as when the story in this book began.

Grateful thanks from all at NZFFBS to everyone mentioned in this book and special thanks to Dave for his efforts in helping us all to remember.

Raewyn Fox

Wellington

2015

Author’s Foreword

I continue to be surprised and delighted at the amount of public funding that is now available for family budgeting organisations in this country.

As one of the steam budgeters who guided hapless families out of debt and into good money management in the 1960s I know only too well the out of pocket cost of that immense voluntary work.

In those days governments were very reluctant to fund private agencies. The state contributed to chaplaincies in the forces, prisons and hospitals, of course. It funded some qangos whose interests usually lay in the private sector, indeed, often also in commercial activities. And it was beginning to provide financial assistance for authorised people working for the courts and marriage counselling.

But the concept of giving direct funding to volunteer organisations was, at that time, a completely unfamiliar one. To be a part of the movement to shift the tide of the then government reluctance to directly fund voluntary bodies was a great privilege. But also a huge challenge.

This is the story of a small qango of only four or five people who accepted the challenge and—before they were unceremoniously sacked by the qango-killers ten years later—held nearly 120 meetings, conducted dozens of educational events, assisted the formation of the national federation of family budgeters, won the hearts and minds of the government bean-counters and initiated the transformation of voluntary budgeting in this country.

In 2015 the NZ Federation of Family Budgeting Services is managing $407 million in personal and family debts as well as promoting a range of budgeting materials and advice. The huge team involved in this massive programme, both paid workers and volunteers, should occasionally give a nod to the HBAC.

1

Notice of Meeting

On 10th March 1978 the then Minister of Social Welfare, Hon H J Walker, signed four instruments of appointment.

In covering letters to J W Grant, R J S Burns, D F Macdonald and D S Mullan he indicated that he was pleased to appoint them to the Home Budgeting Advisory Committee. There would be no salary or fees payable but expenses would be met and the initial appointment would be for two years. The first meeting would soon be called by John Grant who was appointed to the chair.

John was Assistant Director General of the Department of Social Welfare with a background in the former Social Security Department, a benefits and pensions man. Ray Burns had been nominated by the Society of Accountants and had some modest experience with voluntary budgeting work. Duncan Macdonald's name had been put forward by the Citizens' Advice Bureaux of New Zealand and he had been much involved in budget advice with a group of volunteer accountants in Lower Hutt. Dave Mullan—though he didn't know it at the time—had been suggested by the fledgling Federation of Family Budgeting Services. He had been heavily involved in the Dunedin Budget Advisory Service and in co-initiating the federation.

The members were all more or less strangers and brought a variety of viewpoints to the terms of reference that were spelled out at the committee's appointment. They were at one, however, in their commitment to voluntary family budgeting and finding ways to develop it throughout the country.

From the first, this modest little qango (quasi autonomous non-governmental organisation) grabbed hold of its mandate and ran with it. By the time the first meeting was held on 1st May in the second floor conference room of the Charles Fergusson Annexe in Bowen St at least two members had very clear expectations of the committee's role. In only 75 minutes the members were introduced to each other, considered the terms of reference in some detail, agreed that the secretariat would immediately write to every known budgeting service in the country and planned to meet again in a little over three weeks. This vigour was to characterise the committee's style for most of the ten years of its life.

In that time the face of family budgeting work would change beyond recognition. Substantial resources would come to be poured into the work. Adequate recognition would be being given to the thousands of people who gave of their time and skills to help people who need only a little assistance to be able to help themselves. The Home Budgeting Advisory Committee would achieve notable success.

2

Background to the Business

It is not the place of this record to tell the story of family budgeting itself. That is another book that deserves to be written.

Only in New Zealand has there developed such a comprehensive budgeting service on an entirely free and voluntary basis. The happy inspiration of Gray Vuglar and Dr M Nathan Paewai in the far north in the early 1960s was to become a model