Simpson Scott; Williams PotoHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Madam Speaker. Usually at the third reading of a bill it's quite nice to stand in this House and offer some words of support for organisations that do enormous good work in our society and in our communities and those are of course represented by the charitable sector. Regrettably on this occasion at the third reading of this legislation my National Party colleagues and I can't support this legislation because the Minister who has just resumed her seat takes a leaf out of former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern's playbook which is warm soothing words that actually make no tangible real difference other than minor tweaking. If there is a hallmark of this Government's administration it is that fine smooth warm words are no corollary for actually delivering what they said they would promise to deliver and what they actually haven't delivered.So it's important for people listening to this debate to I think understand a little of the history of it. Back in 2017 the Labour Party campaigned on what they called a first-principles review of the Charities Act and that's indeed what we thought they were going to do. As the Minister who's just resumed her seat has pointed out there has been a revolving door a succession of Ministers responsible for this portfolio and each one of them hasn't really been able to progress it in any sensible reasonable way. The best they got actually was nothing close to a first-principles review. What they got actually was a review conducted by the Department of Internal Affairs which was effectively a review of its self its business unit the charity services—hardly independent and hardly going to what I think most New Zealanders would understand as a first-principles review.Now in a previous life I had the privilege and the honour of being the chief executive of a charitable organisation a children's charity a very good one: the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I was for a period of time before coming to this House literally a professional wish-granter. That was quite a good thing to do. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It did good work. As I say it's a very good charity. An organisation like Make-A-Wish represents all that is good and decent about the charitable sector and what they do. I understand the rules the regulations the red tape the administrative requirements that are imposed upon charities because they need to be accountable they need to be transparent and they need to be able to justify the money that they receive the support they receive to their donors to their volunteers and to the recipients of the good work that they do. Those things are important. Notwithstanding the very good work of the vast majority of charities there are some that occasionally get it a bit wrong. So we need to have a framework that is open and that is transparent—those are words also that the Labour Government used to use; they don't use those words any more. But those are ideals and objectives that I think every member in this House would think should apply to the charitable sector.But what this piece of legislation does is little more than minor tweaks—little more than minor tweaks and that's a shame. That's a real shame because there are some changes that are required and some updating of the original principal Act and I think we'd all recognise that. But to come to this House now at this bill's third reading and stand in the Chamber and say as the Minister who's just resumed her seat did that this is somehow going to be transformative that this is going to be a piece of legislation that is going to do what the Labour Party said they were going to do back in 2017—well that's just not an accurate reflection of what this piece of legislation before the House that we're voting on for a third reading this time does. It's a very narrow piece of work.Now again just thinking about the historic perspectives of charities and charitable purposes that do a community and societal good charitable purposes are steeped in the history and annals of our democracy really. They go back to medieval times long before there was a welfare State long before there were the kind of supports that are in place by Governments and taxpayers for people who might find life difficult and who are struggling. So if you go back to the original common law history of charitable purpose it's quite well defined. But over the years that definition has been interpreted in a way that involves better accountability better transparency and justified openness of the charities that do the work and collect the money and do the good. Does this bill actually assist them in any sensible way? The answer to that has to be: no.The bill states as its objectives that they want to enable simpler financial reporting for small charities. Well that's good but is it transformational? No. Improving access to justice for charities and the appeals process. Well that's laudable does the bill achieve that? The answer: really no. Enhancing regulator decision-making requirements to further promote transparency and fairness. Again warm soothing words typical of this current Labour Government but actually failing to deliver. Clarifying the role of officers and supporting governance of charities and improving regulatory compliance and enforcement tools. Again warm soothing words not matched by the black-letter law that is this piece of amending legislation.So we on this side of the House are actually very disappointed because it has been years—it's been six long years actually of a promise having been made and then progressively through that period of six years more promises being made—Yes we're working on it. Yes we're doing something." what have you—the revolving door of Ministers each one having to come to terms and pick up the piece of work that was left by his or her predecessor and then we get presented with this. In the dying days—in the dying days—of this Labour administration we get this. Well what a let-down that is to the sector. What a let-down it is to those people who in 2017 thought that the Labour Party would come good on its promise to have a first-principles review of the Charities Act. They honestly believed that that's what they were going to get. That's what they thought they were going to get and that's not what has been delivered.But on this side of the House we're used to non-delivery from this Government. We're used to the warm soothing words that don't match the reality. So on this side of the House we find that we can't support the legislation not because charities don't do good work not because charities aren't worthy of the support of this Chamber but because the words and the deeds don't match—the words and the deeds don't match.Across my electorate for instance in the Coromandel I often get to attend as most constituency MPs do events organised by charitable organisations. If I think about some of the charitable organisations that literally provide the foundation fabric of the communities in the Coromandel—the volunteer fire brigades the coast guards the surf life savers the community groups citizens advice bureaus any number of them—they are literally the foundation stones and the fabric of our communities. It's not just in the Coromandel that occurs; it's nationwide.So here we have a piece of legislation that had at its inception so much promise so much hope for a better outcome. And what have we got? A damp squib—an absolute damp squib that at its very best does a couple of minor tweaks; a couple of minor tweaks that will achieve very little for a sector that actually does so much good that needs a reform of the principal Act but it needs to be a proper decent and full one. It needs to be as the Labour Party promised back in 2017 a first-principles review. That's not what has occurred. It isn't what is on the tin. This piece of legislation will be a disappointment to a sector that wanted so much from it that felt that they could have been heard could have added so much to it and haven't been heard. What a disgrace and what an embarrassment for the current Minister to stand in this House and try and wax lyrical about a piece of legislation—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Poto Williams): The member's time has expired."