Parmar ParmjeetAUCKLAND REGIONAL AMENITIES FUNDING AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): I move That the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Amendment Bill be now read a second time. It's a real privilege to take this call to highly commend this bill that I am the sponsor of the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Amendment Bill. I would like to start by thanking the Government and Administration Committee for their input. I want to especially acknowledge the chair Dr Jian Yang and the deputy chair Ginny Andersen and of course I want to thank all of the members on the committee as well for working in such a collaborative manner on this legislation. I also want to thank all the advisers and I want to thank all submitters. We received 14 submissions during the select committee process and we had the opportunity to hear from one submitter here in Wellington. I would say that that one submitter covered the whole bill really well—the background and the need for this bill. We did make some changes to this legislation in the select committee process and those changes can be grouped under two main headings. I will talk about them but before that I want to say that I had the opportunity to sub on to the select committee as and when this bill was on the select committee's agenda. So I've been through this whole process even on the select committee and I have been in touch with one of the Auckland regional amenities to ensure that we were able to deliver what the objective of this legislation has been. This bill is to see that the financial reporting standard in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008—the principal Act—aligns with the financial reporting standard that is there in the Charities Act 2005. So according to the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 the specified amenities are required to prepare financial statements in accordance with New Zealand's equivalent to International Financial Reporting Standards. According to the Charities Act 2005 they are required to prepare their financial statements as per generally accepted accounting practice. Now the important point to note here is that the New Zealand equivalent to International Financial Reporting Standards are part of generally accepted accounting practice but that is mainly for entities that are for profit not for entities that are not-for-profit and these Auckland regional amenities are registered as charities under the Charities Act 2005. These entities are not-for-profit and so the standard which is required as per the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 should not apply to them but at the moment they have to in order to comply and prepare their financial statements as per this New Zealand equivalent to International Financial Reporting Standards as well. So it is basically just doubling up their work and I would say that this should have been fixed when section 42A of the Charities Act 2005 commenced in 2015. But at that time that got overlooked and that's why these amenities have this issue of non-compliance because they are complying with the Charities Act 2005 because if they don't comply with the Charities Act 2005 reporting standards they will lose their charitable status. We have these amenities. They are really active and are really important to our Auckland community. These amenities are the Auckland Philharmonia New Zealand Opera Ltd Auckland Theatre Co. the Auckland Festival Trust Auckland Observatory and Planetarium Trust—which is based in Mount Roskill at the moment—Coast Guard Northern Region Surf Life Saving Northern Region Auckland Regional Rescue Helicopter Trust and WaterSafe Auckland. I said that the Auckland Observatory and Planetarium Trust is based in Mount Roskill at the moment where I'm based. That is because as we know we are undergoing boundary changes and it is quite possible that this amenity may not remain in Mount Roskill. It is not that the amenity is moving out but the boundary might change and so this might mean that this amenity will go into another electorate. But that doesn't matter to me because this is about helping these amenities that are there in Auckland and it's a real privilege to have the opportunity to support this amenity and other amenities—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but the time has come for the House to adjourn for the dinner break. Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Before the dinner break I was saying that one of the Auckland regional amenities that is currently located in Mount Roskill may actually become part of another electorate as we are undergoing boundary changes. But that doesn't matter as I was saying because this is about supporting these amenities not just one amenity but all Auckland regional amenities.I also explained why this bill was needed why the alignment of financial reporting standards in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 was important to be aligned with the Charities Act 2005.So now I would like to focus on changes that are proposed by the select committee. In the select committee as I said before the dinner break the changes that were made can be grouped under two headings. The first one is around the clarity of the commencement date because as the bill was proposed there was no clarity around transitional provisions. In the select committee process we thought it was important for us to provide that clarity. So we propose adding a clause clause 4A which provides the clarity around the commencement of this change that is proposed through this legislation. This would apply for a financial year that was in progress or recently completed and that makes full sense.The second change that was made in the select committee process is actually a very important one a change that is really important to all these Auckland regional amenities and that change is about retrospective validation. I'm mindful and all members on the select committee were mindful that it's not a common practice for us in Parliament to make any changes that have a retrospective validation especially where there is some non-compliance. But in this case it's a very different case because this is a minor a technical change that we are making to benefit all these Auckland regional amenities. This non-compliance is not harming any other entity or third party. I have already talked about this before the dinner break—that the standard that is required as per the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 doesn't apply anyway to these Auckland regional amenities because they are registered as charities under the Charities Act 2005. So this is actually something that we should have fixed when section 42A of the Charities Act 2005 commenced but it got overlooked. That's why the Auckland regional amenities are required to prepare their financial statements as per these two different standards that are prescribed in these two different pieces of legislation. But they have been complying with the Charities Act 2005 and they have been preparing their financial statements in accordance with public benefit entity standards. So this is something that we must note: that they have been complying with one of these two standards and they have been complying with the Charities Act 2005.So the retrospective validation that we have allowed in this legislation in this bill in the select committee process is only for amenities that are non-compliant with the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 as long as they are complying with the Charities Act 2005. So if they are complying with the Charities Act 2005 then we say that retrospective validation will apply. This makes full sense again because these amenities don't want to have any non-compliance in their record. We want to help them because this is actually something that Parliament overlooked when that change was made in the Charities Act 2005. This retrospective validation will apply from that time; that was 2015 so the 2014-15 financial year we are talking about. As I said before if they are complying with the Charities Act 2005 then only this retrospective validation will apply to these Auckland regional amenities.So going forward I really hope that all sides in the House will support this legislation because this will save a lot of work for these Auckland regional amenities that is not adding value to anyone and actually is just duplicating the work that they have to do to prepare financial statements as per these two different standards under these two different pieces of legislation. So I highly commend this bill. Thank you Mr Speaker.