Smith Murray: Retirement Villages Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Smith Murray: Retirement Villages Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9418] 
MURRAY SMITH (United Future) 
: 
 I am very pleased to see the Retirement Villages Bill coming back for its Committee stage and then its third reading. United Future has been pushing for this bill to pass through all its stages as quickly as possible. The Committee will remember that the second reading debate took place because United Future specifically requested it be included in the urgency held earlier this year and we have also been pushing for this bill to be included in this lot of urgency. We finally see very pleasingly that the protection this bill will afford residents in retirement villages is getting a bit closer. 
I note the commencement date is February next year for some provisions. That is good but in terms of the other work that has to be done with regulations being formatted it seems it may not be until August next year that the full effect and particularly the appointment of statutory supervisors will occur. So we are still some months away from seeing the full effect of this bill and the sooner we can see it the better. 
Looking at Supplementary Order Paper 157 and particularly looking at issues with regard to the statutory supervisor’s role I have a number of comments I wish to make under those categories. Firstly I welcome the change to clause 13(2)(c)(ii) which now provides that a statutory supervisor does not have to certify that financial statements comply with the Financial Reporting Act but simply has to state that they comply “to the best of the supervisor’s knowledge and belief”. That was a concern for statutory supervisors. It arose from discussions I had with statutory supervisors on the bill and its format. I am very pleased to see that the Government has agreed to change that provision to lower the threshold that statutory supervisors need to comply with. Otherwise statutory supervisors would have had to inspect financial statements and go through effectively an audit before they could say they complied—as opposed to “to the best of the supervisor’s knowledge and belief”. That would have added significantly to their costs and that extra cost would have been passed on to retirement villages and then on to residents. 
I also allude to Supplementary Order Paper 129 which I have lodged which would add a clause 41B. This was another change that was keenly sought by the statutory supervisors. In essence the clause provides that certain disputes that are notified to the operators—in particular ones that affect a significant number of the retirement village’s residents or the general operation of the village or the operator’s rights and obligations under the deed of supervision—have to be notified to the statutory supervisors. Not all disputes have to be notified. The wording of the amendment on Supplementary Order Paper 129 has been phrased so that not every dispute needs be notified to the statutory supervisors but only those of some significance. Obviously the statutory supervisors’ role is to protect the interests of the residents as a whole and therefore if a dispute is lodged that affects a significant number of the retirement village’s residents the statutory supervisors ought to be aware of that. The amendment I have lodged does not say that the statutory supervisors have an automatic right to get involved; nevertheless if they see something happening and have a feel for what is happening in the village they can take appropriate action if they feel that intervention is necessary. Surely at the end of the day that is the role we ask the statutory supervisors to fulfil. 
Clause 41B also covers the general operation of the village and again the statutory supervisors are in a position to oversee the general operation. If the supervisors cannot get prior warning of disputes arising by getting notification of those disputes at the earliest possible time then that will fetter their obligation to do the job they are employed to do. 
The third area is where the operator’s rights and obligations under the deed of supervision have been affected by the dispute. The deed of supervision is the key document that the statutory supervisors are obliged to look at and take cognisance of when dealing with operators.