People on community work sentences did about 30,000 hours in Invercargill in 2019 and volunteer-based organisations say their events would not go ahead without the labour. Eighty-eight people completed 29,268 hours of community work in Invercargill last year. Across New Zealand last year, about 15,000 people on community work sentences undertook 1,097,065 hours' work. Corrections Southern regional operations director Chris O'Brien-Smith said the purpose of the community work sentence was for people to give something back to the community against which they offended. He estimates about 200 hours from community workers went into the show, held at Donovan Park.

Source: Stuff March 19, 2020 00:56 UTC