Rich Katherine: Charities Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Rich Katherine: Charities Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:625;Page:19969] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 I would like to turn listeners’ attention to clause 82 “Minister’s role”. This is a rather disturbing clause because it lays out the role of the Minister in relation to this new organisation and in particular the Minister’s role in relation to the appointment and removal of members of the commission. What I think we will see once again is the appointment of Labour Party friends to this commission so that the commission will be a poodle before it even starts. 
This part of the bill also sets out what directions the Minister can give to the commission and the fact that the Minister can review the operations and performance of the commission. This part of the bill should send a shiver down the spine of every single charitable organisation in New Zealand. This is where the cold clammy hand of the Government starts to interfere with the role of the Charities Commission which in turn will interfere with the role of charities up and down this country. If this clause were not scary enough we need to turn to clause 123 “Minister may conduct review” which states: “(1) The Minister may review the operations and performance of the Commission at any time.” The moment the Minister wants to get in there and interfere bully a few members get a few decisions she or he can review and conduct a performance investigation at any time. 
So what we have here is the Minister’s ability to get involved with the commission to interfere to make this commission its lapdog for the Government so that this bill can achieve its ultimate goal which is to get Government involvement and control over 37000 charitable groups that currently enjoy autonomy. This bill is designed to make sure that the Government can start to interfere at a level we have not seen. This is the part of the bill that introduces politics to the Charities Commission. This is where we will see people who have perhaps delivered pamphlets for the Labour Party for the last 20 years being appointed to a wee job that they can oversee as a reward for their service to their political party. 
This part of the bill is particularly disturbing. The Minister needs to explain how these appointments are to be made that they will be independent that the appointees will not be Labour Party friends but people who hopefully are community representatives people who have had some involvement at least with the voluntary sector and that they are people who will do a good job once this bureaucracy is set up. This part of the bill introduces the costly part of the bureaucracy because it is all about who goes on the board what they are to be paid how they are to be appointed what the requirements will be and what the Minister can do to interfere in that particular role. 
The Minister must explain to the Committee what she sees as being her role because at the moment in black and white it looks pretty extreme. Under this legislation she can give directions to the commission. She can decide what she wants the commission members to do at any point in time. If they do not play ball she has the ability to go in there and review the operations and performance. Anybody who has been involved in an organisation knows that that is often a bullying tactic of Labour Ministers: “If you do not play ball we’re going to go in and audit you and conduct reviews until the cows come home so that we can get you to do as we say.” 
What we have seen in this part is very very concerning. This part of the bill is designed to add additional bureaucracy.