Wall Louisa: New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill Charities Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wall Louisa: New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill Charities Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 30 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2725. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 Talofa lava Mr Speaker. Tena koutou katoa. It is my pleasure to rise and speak in this third reading debate which is a summing up debate on what was the Crown Entities Reform Bill. I want to acknowledge that at this point in time we are discussing the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill and the Charities Amendment Bill (No 2). I want to speak exclusively about the Charities Amendment Bill (No 2).  
What I am going to do is basically sum up the process that has led us to today. In terms of the background to the bill the bill amalgamates the functions of a number of existing agencies to improve their financial efficiency—supposedly—and effectiveness and to increase their future viability. Dr Jonathan Coleman was the Minister in charge of the original bill. The bill was first introduced on 29 September 2011 and it had its first reading on 4 October 2011. We obviously had a general election on 26 November 2011. It is worth noting that the Government Administration Committee which was ably chaired by my colleague the Hon Ruth Dyson reported back to the House on 30 March 2012. So I am sure that the people listening understand that there seems to have been quite a truncated process. In fact one of the points that the select committee itself highlighted was that the process was interrupted by the end of the last Parliament which further added to the confusion about the status of the bill. An extension of the deadlines for submissions resulted in some stakeholders being unaware that submissions had been called for.  
On the key findings of the select committee report it is interesting to note that there were 43 submissions received 17 of which were oral. Of the 43 submissions received 20 were specifically about the Charities Amendment Bill (No 2)—or Part 3 of the Crown Entities Reform Bill—and 19 of those submissions opposed it. So the charitable sector in fact was very clear that it opposed this bill the Charities Amendment Bill (No 2). I also want to highlight that the select committee report about the Charities Commission component did acknowledge the strong concern expressed by submitters in relation to the disestablishment of the Charities Commission and that not all members of the select committee were convinced that the legislative safeguards in the bill would be sufficient to maintain the degree of independence the Charities Commission provided. Members also expressed concern that some functions would be less accessible to the public and less transparent when transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs.  
When we look at the Charities Act 2005 as it currently stands there is a review timetabled. The Charities Act review is due to take place following the current review of the Incorporated Societies Act 1908. I want to make the point that the Labour and Green select committee members believe that the Charities Commission function should not be transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs that no decisions on legislative or operational change should be made until the review of the Charities Act has been completed and that the independence and integrity of the Charities Commission cannot be retained if the functions are transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs. At least on our side we were very clear that we did not want to see this part of the Crown Entities Reform Bill proceed and our position has not changed.  
I want to highlight that the report of the State Services Commission to the select committee noted the following points and they are interesting. The first one I want to highlight is that there has been a lot of publicity about how efficient and effective and what a cost-saving measure merging the Charities Commission operations into the Department of Internal Affairs will be. So savings associated with disestablishing the Charities Commission were one of the main rationales for this part of the bill. What the officials acknowledged was that many submitters believed that savings from disestablishing the Charities Commission were doubtful. The officials themselves said that one of the critical rationales for the Government’s proposal to merge the Charities Commission with the Department of Internal Affairs was doubtful. I want to put that on record. Another key theme that emerged and this is again from the State Services Commission’s report to the select committee was that the independence of the Charities Commission’s functions would be compromised by transferring them to the Department of Internal Affairs—highlighting the autonomy and independence of the commission. The second point was that the Charities Commission’s role of educating the charitable sector would be compromised by transferring the functions to the Department of Internal Affairs. The other point I want to make is that the Charities Commission should be retained in its current form until after the completion of the review of the Charities Act 2005.  
It has been interesting as the Labour spokesperson for the community and voluntary sector to have an opportunity to engage with our sector and to listen to what it had to say about the proposal in the Crown Entities Reform Bill in terms of merging the Charities Commission with the Department of Internal Affairs. I would like to read a couple of quotes. 
I have one here from Dave Henderson who is coordinator of ANGOA which is the Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Aotearoa. It works in the areas of health education recreation and sports international development human rights arts culture and heritage social services family budgeting hospice care disability conservation and the environment child and youth support women mental health aged care refugee support family planning prisoners and family support injury prevention and ethnicity. I want to quote Dave: “The change being forced through Parliament actually does not address the real issue that community sector organisations have been raising consistently with Government for several years: that a review is seriously needed of the way the 2005 Charities Act is being interpreted. Community organisations and charities have been asking for the planned review of the Act to be brought forward from 2015 so the Commission can be given a better steer on its interpretation of certain clauses. Just a few of its decisions have been ill-founded and as a result have been damaging to community organisations. Instead of addressing those real issues this Government is simply axing the Commission but it has still not committed itself to bringing forward the review which community groups are still saying is what’s really needed. Question to the Minister: will the Government commit to addressing those real issues with urgency after this bill has gone through?”. I guess that that is the challenge for the Minister. Will the review take place? Will the sector be involved?  
I want to read another quote from Tina Reid the Executive Director of Social Development Partners which is a member of ComVoices an independent network of tangata whenua and leading national community and voluntary organisations. She agrees with Dave but she wants to add this: “My further point is that we have always valued an independent commission being in a position to speak up for the sector outside of Government policy. Over the last 4 years they have had a major workload to establish the regulatory function of the commission and it is only in their last year that there has been the opportunity to develop the functions to support and advocate for the sector. We are concerned that this will be lost by losing its autonomy.” 
I want to reiterate that on this side of the House we will be voting with the community and voluntary sector. We have heard them. So it is my pleasure to say that we oppose the Charities Amendment Bill (No 2) and I look forward to working with the sector because this issue is not over. Kia ora.