Nash Stuart: Accounting Infrastructure Reform Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Accounting Infrastructure Reform Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:323. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier):I am going to make only a very short speech. I have just a couple of quick questions on this and they are around the commencement. Obviously you have your stock standard lines that through the Governor-General by Order in Council the bill will become an Act. I am slightly curious so maybe the Minister of Commerce can help me out on this one and I was not on the Commerce Committee so I am not privy to this and maybe one of my colleagues who was will help me. Clause 2(2) actually says: “To the extent that it has not previously been brought into force under subsection (1) the rest of this Act comes into force on 1 April 2017.” I am not too sure but are there some parts of this bill that actually are not going to be brought into force for another 2½ years? That would seem like a long time for a bill that professes a level of transparency that is required which I think this bill brings by and large. I have outlined some of my concerns around the charities provisions and my colleague Clare Curran has talked about those. I still have slight concerns to be honest.Clare Curran: I’m sure we can continue the discussion.STUART NASH: Well I do have some slight concerns that if you have an operation between $0.5 million and $1 million you do not have to get your accounts fully audited though they can be reviewed. The Minister talked about the difference between being reviewed and being audited. I appreciate that and I thank the Minister for his input on that. But are there any parts of the Act that actually are not going to be enforced for another 2½ years? I get the date. Obviously 1 April is the beginning of the financial year for 2017 but it is a long time I think you will agree between this Act coming into force and parts of this Act not being law for 2½ years.I wonder whether there is a reason behind this. There often are when you get these sorts of Acts because there are processes that are already in place that need to go through to their conclusion. Obviously there is no point in having retrospective legislation even though this is not technically retrospective. If there is already a process in place or things need to run their course then I understand that. I must admit that 2½ years does seem quite a long time but there may be something in here that I am unsure of or I do not know about and therefore the Minister or maybe even Miss Curran could enlighten me on that. It is quite a long time.The other thing also is that it is slightly unusual where it says in clause 2(1) that “…1 or more orders may be made bringing different provisions into force on different dates.” I am just wondering again whether this is maybe because of a submission that was put in during the select committee process and for whatever reason it was deemed that this would not hit the books straight away but that it would be sort of drip-fed in. That might have been because this is about consolidating a lot of the practices that occur in New Zealand and Australia. Am I right there Miss Curran? There may be reasons behind this and no doubt there are perfectly good reasons.We all agree on this. This is a good bill which I think will bring a level of transparency. I think that some of the clauses may be open to jurisprudence as we go forward. As mentioned I have real concerns when the Registrar of Companies has the ability to allow an auditor who has been struck off to continue to practise under certain circumstances. We did talk about this and I did allude to this but I am curious to know whether there are any parts of the Act in particular that are not going to come into play for another 2½ years. That is my only question.Clause 1 agreed to.Clause 2 agreed to.The Committee divided the bill into the Auditor Regulation Amendment Bill the Charities Amendment Bill (No 3) the Financial Reporting Amendment Bill and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants Amendment Billpursuant to Supplementary Order Paper 470.Bill to be reported with amendment presently.