Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Financial Reporting Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Financial Reporting Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11514. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National):Sat sri akaal and mōrena Mr Assistant Speaker. It is my pleasure to stand in this second reading of the Financial Reporting Bill. First of all I would like to congratulate the Hon Craig Foss on bringing up this bill which is consistent with the policy of this Government to reduce red-tapism. National is focused on boosting growth and creating jobs. Only a strong economy can provide financial security for families real opportunities for young people safer communities and the high-quality education and health services that all New Zealanders need.I would like to congratulate Jonathan Young the chair of the Commerce Committee on his leadership and other members who have really worked hard on this bill. I would also like to thank the officials for their work during the deliberations on this bill.I would like to speak to this bill from the perspective of the ethnic community. I would like to touch on two things from the perspective of small to medium sized enterprises and charities. I owned a small business and I know it is difficult to meet those obligations under the statute because a lot of paperwork is required and a lot of time goes to accountants to prepare the financial reporting. As a volunteer I served in a charity for 8 years and I know it is very difficult for charities to prepare and get volunteers to do the work for their financial reporting.The Financial Reporting Bill replaces the Financial Reporting Act 1993 by reforming the Act. This National Government seeks to rationalise financial reporting obligations across the statute book in three ways. First of all the bill ensures that all reporting obligations are consistent with the goals of financial reporting so that the external user can use simplified data in a meaningful manner. Secondly definitions and provisions are standardised between the Financial Reporting Act and other legislation. Thirdly the new bill makes the language of the financial reporting in different Acts broadly consistent. The reform is needed in legislation to ensure that out-of-date rules and regulations are replaced with the current requirements.New Zealand has got more than half a million companies registered that are under the size of 20 employees. For small and medium sized companies financial reporting can be an expensive and unnecessary exercise. The Financial Reporting Bill has requirements that allow small businesses and medium-sized companies to direct their resources to where their need is greatest—that is growing their businesses. From the charities’ point of view the bill proposed that there should be a $40000 threshold for charities’ financial reporting but when the select committee heard the submissions it was deliberated that $125000 should be the minimum requirement for a charity to report back its financial statements. So with these changes I think the bill will be very well received by the different submitters and I hope this will go a long way. I commend this bill to the House.