Robertson GrantThird ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the Annual Reporting and Audit Time Frames Extensions Legislation Bill be now read a third time. I thank all members of the House for their contribution to this legislation. I want to put on record my particular appreciation to the ACT Green and Te Paati Māori representatives for the way that they have approached this very simple piece of legislation. None of us wants to be in the circumstances where we are passing legislation to extend statutory time frames in this way. However the circumstances that we live in today and the world that we live in today occasionally dictates that we need to do this. This is as has been said a number of times a simple bill. It is the same piece of legislation that was passed in this House with I believe unanimous support last year but clearly something was different for some members of the House this year. But to all those members who were able to see the bill for what it was I say thank you.To reiterate there are three specific reasons that the Auditor-General came to the Government and in turn the Government came to this House to create this extension. The first of those is the global shortage of auditors that we are facing. As we've said before in New Zealand there's around a 200 auditor shortage; in Australia around a 1000 auditor shortage. All of this causes issues during the peak season for audits where Audit New Zealand would normally have staff come in from other private sector agencies to support them in their audits and all of those entities are challenged by the shortage that they face.Secondly the other reason is partly related to that. Ongoing border closures here in New Zealand and indeed elsewhere around the world have led to limited movement of auditors who might normally have come in during this period.Then thirdly as has been addressed through the debate there is the high level of staff turnover at Audit New Zealand and as I have said on a number of occasions during the debate that may well be a matter that the Officers of Parliament Committee choose to take up at some point. I would note for members opposite that we were advised during this debate that on 11 March the Auditor-General was in front of the Officers of Parliament Committee and he did raise the fact that he would be looking to raise audit fees in order to ensure that he was able to pay competitive salaries for auditors. It is audit fees—those fees charged to clients—that fund this; not a Government appropriation.There isn't a great deal more to add to the debate. We will when this legislation passes enable a two-month delay. The Auditor-General has been clear about his sense of prioritisation during that period that will see the financial statements of Government and the audits of those entities related to that all completed during the normal statutory time frame and the same for large council organisations. The Auditor-General has committed to working closely with any entity who has specific circumstances that would require their audit to be done in the normal time frame rather than the extended time frame that has been allowed for.I'll just finish my contribution picking up a matter that I spoke about during this morning's proceedings and that is the way that an Officer of Parliament and his office have been discussed during this debate. I do have some concerns as to what I have heard at times during this debate and I would ask members if they have concerns about those matters to use the Officers of Parliament Committee as the appropriate place to do this. I am here today with this legislation on behalf in a sense of that office with Cabinet having taken the decision that in order to get robust audits and in order to manage the wellbeing of the staff within the Audit Office this is necessary. But underlying issues are ones that are best addressed via the Officers of Parliament Committee.For those National MPs who will now return to their electorates they will proudly be able to say that they managed to extend out a debate to make sure that they fought against a two-month extension to ensure that there were robust audits. They will proudly go to their electorates and go and say to them That's why we're here." and that's why the National Party languishes in the mid-20 percents in the polls."