Volunteer or cheap labour? Most of us are only too keen to volunteer for a needy cause and there are lots of deserving causes. The current government has found a way of saving money – cheap labour in the form of the volunteer; cheaper than importing such from overseas. The Fire Brigade is 80 per cent volunteers – why not paid staff? When you consider the number of fire call-outs, road crashes, storm damage, getting Gareth Morgan's cat out of a tree etc. do you think that is a fair go for anyone to do that for nothing? St John says that volunteers save them $30 million a year because this government thinks that it's their volunteers' job to work so that St John can respond with an essential service to save you, or your family's life. Is that what the public would call a good system? It costs the public purse $1million per MP. Try and short-change them and stand back for the reaction. Will Labour change that scenario? Will this battle continue under a Labour government? Volunteers and the public would like to know.

R Chamberlain, Otumoetai (Abridged)