Salesa Jenny; Bayly Andrew; Robertson GrantWEDNESDAY 7 JULY 2021(continued on Thursday 8 July 2021)ANNUAL REPORTING AND AUDIT TIME FRAMES EXTENSIONS LEGISLATION BILLIn CommitteeDebate resumed.Part 2 Amendments to the Local Government Act 2002 (continued)CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Members when we suspended last night we were debating Part 2 clauses 5 to 7 the amendments to the Local Government Act 2002. The question is that Part 2 stand part.ANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. Lovely to see us all back here this morning. I was complimenting Mr Robertson before on his dress attire. At least he didn't have the issue of having to worry about a tie. But it's nice to see you again.The issue we've got is obviously about the local government component of this bill. I have a tabled amendment as you're probably aware about the timing and the two-month period that is being set aside. In fact what my tabled amendment deals with is the issue of the second part of the bill in terms of the requirements to delay the audit of local authorities. Given that we've had a break in the proceedings from last night it might be worthwhile just repeating this. This is to do with in clause 6 new part 5(b): in relation to the financial year ending with 30 June 2022 the report referred to in that subsection must be delivered in accordance with subsection (1)(b) and made available in accordance with [that] subsection … no later than the close of 30 November 2022." and section 7 actually relates to 30 December rather than the 30 November date.So basically in both respects for both councils there's an issue of the second year of delay. And the question we were talking about last night is why was the need to have a further delay particularly for local authorities for the second year? My question I'd like to put to the Minister—and I hope this is going to be interactive—is what advice did he get from local government about both seeking a delay on the audit for local authorities both for this coming financial year and obviously the subsequent year which is what I've been referring to in my tabled amendment? Did he talk to anyone from local government and if so who and what was their response? Because that'd be an interesting—or whether in fact he decided in his own right.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Ata mārie good morning. In terms of that I did not specifically and I'm sure the member will understand that I'm not the Minister of Local Government. I would need to check as to who the Minister of Local Government spoke with. I do know that in the course of putting the Cabinet paper together that then led to this legislation. There was consultation through the Department of Internal Affairs as you would normally expect. What I do know for certain is that the local government sector want there to be robust and accurate audits. They want to know that what they paid for—the fees they pay—will get them the service that they need. And obviously that brings us back to the premise of the legislation which is that the Auditor-General has asked us as a Government and now as a Parliament to grant this extra couple of months in order to make sure that robust audits can be completed. They will still be completed in a timely manner. Just to pick up on the member's point in the middle of his contribution I think it's worthwhile in this section just to note that there are different deadlines for council-controlled organisations and local authorities and that's represented by the two different clauses in Part 2. The normal deadline for council-controlled organisations is 30 September; and for local authorities 31 October. So each of those goes out by two months. As I say from my perspective this will ensure a robust audit that means that local government and council-controlled organisations will be able to stand by their audited accounts and I'm sure that's what matters the most."