Roche Denise: Crown Entities Reform Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Roche Denise: Crown Entities Reform Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2256. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENISE ROCHE (Green) 
: 
 The Greens will be opposing this bill the Crown Entities Reform Bill because on balance we see more harm in it than good. Although we acknowledge that there are some adjustments that could be in order especially around the area of health promotion there are several areas in this omnibus bill that cause considerable damage. In particular I refer to Part 3 and the shift of the Charities Commission so that it sits within the Department of Internal Affairs. There is considerable concern within the charities sector and the community and voluntary sector. I acknowledge that other speakers have already talked about this but I would like to also touch on some of the issues that these organisations have and their fears around what could happen to the Charities Commission if it was subsumed by the Department of Internal Affairs.  
At the moment there are about 28000 registered charities. They have been put on a register by the Charities Commission which actually acts as a watchdog and has a reporting regime that means that those charities are held to account. Their financial records are transparent and this means that philanthropic organisations are able to go to that register and see what sort of activities those charities have been contributing towards in the last year of their operation. That register is a fail-safe; it is a watchdog. It acts as a measure to ensure that dodgy trusts cannot be set up—and there have been attempts to make that happen. Some may want to set up dodgy trusts because there are quite a lot of tax exemptions that can happen as a result of being registered as a charity.  
We believe that the move to shift the Charities Commission into the Department of Internal Affairs—and this bill basically—is premature. The Charities Act is still a fairly new Act. There is a review of principles that is scheduled to be undertaken within the next few years and in fact there is discussion already around the terms of reference for that review. As well as that the Incorporated Societies Act was also due to be looked at so to actually jump the gun to say that this is what we are going to do to dismantle—and there will be an element of dismantling—the roles of the Charities Commission and to do that before those reviews have taken place means that that Act which was passed through this House in good faith is failing to meet what it set out to achieve.  
 My colleague from Labour Louisa Wall actually spoke quite movingly I thought about how the charities sector and the community and voluntary sector feel about not being listened to. I join with a lot of other speakers who commented on the fact that the process for the submissions was truncated and did not lend it to a democratic process. We acknowledge the reasons for that around the election. However there were many charities that did want to have their say as well. They have actually been sending in letters though and I would just like to quote from some of the points that have been raised from some of the letters that I have received.  
This comes I think from the Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Aotearoa. It is concerned about this move because the proposal is based on major errors of understanding in the Government’s thinking. The first point is the “Lack of understanding that charities are set up by ordinary New Zealanders … to address an issue they see in their community. And that such goodwill and initiatives do not require the involvement of a government department … Most charities receive no direct funding from government so their responsibility is to their members and their community—not government” and not to the Department of Internal Affairs. The letter continues: “DIAs involvement is likely to dampen initiatives in the community rather than encourage them … The proposed change is out of step with government’s own policy push around Better Public Services—it will instead lead to more bureaucracy and lower innovation.”  
I attended a conference quite recently where four international speakers on charities law also said that this move would be a great leap backwards. We will be voting against this bill and tomorrow when the Supplementary Order Paper comes up to defer Part 3 of the bill we will be supporting that. Thank you.