Robertson Grant; Dean JacquiSecond ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the Annual Reporting and Audit Time Frames Extensions Legislation Bill be now read a second time. As I said in my first reading speech this is a relatively simple bill. It extends the time frames for audits covered under the two Acts being amended those being the Crown Entities Act and the Local Government Act by two months—two months—for the audit time frames in order to deal with what has been covered in the first reading debate: the impact of a shortage of available auditors with the appropriate expertise to be able to complete these audits. This is a simple bill and therefore I'm going to focus my comments in the second reading on correcting one or two of the matters that I've heard raised in the first reading and also on making the point to the Mr Woodhouse and others that for such an egregious bill in their eyes they voted for it last year. So they voted for the same bill last year but this year apparently it's an egregious bill. I want to turn to a number of the comments that have been raised. The first of those and one that's been a common thread in a number of the Opposition speeches is that somehow or other the Government is doing something here that it would not be prepared to do for any other agency. A number of members in the House may not have been present for my first reading speech—and I can do a bit more detail for the benefit of the Opposition now—where on 15 June the Financial Markets Authority granted relief for private businesses for the audits that they have in place. They also along with the Inland Revenue have been providing regular relief from various regulatory provisions that affect businesses throughout the last year and a half. The Government is here doing as the Auditor-General has requested: for this extension to be made for the Act for which the Auditor-General is responsible. So we are not doing as members across the House suggest. We are in fact merely doing what is within our powers and the Financial Markets Authority have done what is within their powers to support those private businesses.The other concern that seems to have been raised is that somehow or other this could have all been solved by simply opening up the border and by the way that was a reasonably extraordinary contribution from the Hon Gerry Brownlee who appeared to be advocating for a mass opening of the border because that's the only way we could interpret that. What Mr Brownlee seems to have not picked up is that 17000 critical workers have come through the managed isolation and quarantine system and are now working in New Zealand. We continue each day to see critical workers across many industries come into New Zealand. This issue would not be solved by that Mr Brownlee. This issue is immediate. It needs to be dealt with now and I want to thank all of the other parties in Parliament for the vote that was just cast on the first reading of this bill because what that shows is that there is a level of understanding among members across the House—with the exception of one party—that this is a situation that while not at all desirable is easily solvable and it does not change anything other than the fact that there is a two-month extension to complete all of the audits that are required by the Auditor-General to complete as was done last year. The other issue that has been raised is this question—and I do want to allude to it—of high staff turnover in the Office of the Auditor-General or in the Audit Office. That is true and the Auditor-General has acknowledged that in correspondence with myself and indeed I believe with Mr Bayly—and I will return to the Auditor-General's correspondence with Mr Bayly at a later point in this debate. But in that correspondence it's clear that there has been high staff turnover in the Audit Office. I would encourage the members of the Officers of Parliament Committee the appropriate place for a discussion about the Audit Office and the Auditor-General to take that matter up if that is of concern to the Opposition. But the Auditor-General himself has been very open with myself and Mr Bayly about the fact that this is one of the contributory issues. But the overall point is that there is a shortage of auditors across Australasia. The way in which the Audit Office manages the season of audits is to use private sector auditors to join the office. So even if the staff turnover issue in the Audit Office was not an issue today the overall number of auditors available in Australasia is now the problem and what we know from Australia is that they have about 1000 vacancies and from a survey conducted by the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand about 200 vacancies here in New Zealand. So the ability of the Audit Office to do what it would normally do and seek people from those private sector firms is also diminished as a result of the global shortage of auditors. So this is a problem. We need to address the problem. Most of the parties in Parliament understand that this is a practical and pragmatic solution that the Auditor-General an Officer of Parliament has come to this Parliament to ask for. It is as simple as that. That is why we have a bill in front of us tonight. It should be able to pass through the House very quickly if people take that kind of mature approach. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.