SpeechDr EMILY HENDERSON (Labour—Whangārei) (remote): Kia ora e te Māngai o te Whare. It's a pleasure to take a call on this beautiful afternoon in Whangārei speaking to you in Wellington. Not far from where you sit now Madam Speaker is the Star Boating Club and it was at the turn of the last century that members of the Star Boating Club approached members of this House with a request that measures for governing their group be made easier because the options in those days were trusts—and pretty much only trusts. They requested some way to organise the legalities of their enterprise which of course has done us so proud over the years with so many international stars arising out of it. They requested a mechanism to make things easier for them to do what they did best. And so this House obliged with the Incorporated Societies Act. It's a great pleasure now 114 years later to rise to support the modernisation of that Act. Just as I can now speak to you on a hybrid Parliament just as the Star Boating Club continues to do great work and produce wonderful stars including such people as my brother-in-law Nick Cousins who represented New Zealand at one point so too this Act needs modernisation so it can continue its work. I was aware of the work of incorporated societies but I don't think I've ever been aware of the extent of their work around New Zealand. When I had a look at Whangārei I found out that there are over 100 incorporated societies just with the name Whangārei in it and they do vital work around my town. If it's issues that are more of the philanthropic variety we have the Women's Refuge Tryphina House we have Multicultural Whangārei we have the old dyslexia association SPELD—all incorporated societies. They cover every kind of sporting code whether you're a bowler or a tennis player; they cover every code of music whether you're into choral or country and western: there is an incorporated society of Whangārei for you. And when you have so many passionate volunteers there is always room for things to potentially go wrong and a lack of clarity in the rule-making and a lack of clarity in the law governing incorporated societies is a recipe for disaster. Like many of those here I have seen occasions in my professional life previous to this House as a lawyer where things did go wrong and confusions have arisen. We also have the situation that we need to attract volunteers. We need to attract volunteers to societies in a time when volunteering has become difficult for many people. In an era where we work longer and harder where women are out of the house doing things that they wish to do—such as being members of Parliament—and we have fewer volunteer hours we need to make it easier for our volunteers to participate. When I looked through the incorporated societies in which Whangārei is so rich I was struck by how many of the volunteers I know in my own Labour Party here in Whangārei do double triple quadruple duty across many incorporated societies. The astronomical society of Whangārei is a hotbed of Labour Party activity and many is the Citizens Advice Bureau meeting that we have had to work around in order to meet as a Labour Party. We have a number of people doing hard work as volunteers over numerous societies. We need to attract new blood but it's hard to attract people who are already busy unless they are pretty clear on what it is they signing up for and this bill does precisely that. It gives us a new constitution which will be clearer and new constitutional requirements which will make it clearer to would-be members as to what they are signing up for. It also vitally lays out the duties of the directors and this is something that previously was left up to case law. As much as I love to read a good case it's not the easiest or most straightforward way to figure out what is meant by your duties as a director in a society—or as a member indeed. As I mentioned things can go spectacularly wrong when there is a lack of clarity in any group of people who are passionate about what they're doing whether it is country and western music or the Whangārei astronomical society. It is important now that there will be a dispute resolution mechanism written into constitutions to make it easier for people. On that line I do want to echo what the Hon Andrew Little said earlier: the provisions to make it clear as to what information members can get and that they can require financial information to be presented are really important in enabling societies to operate cleanly and transparently and keep members without it becoming a source of disquiet or concern. I'm also very pleased to see the lessening of the burden on our smaller societies who would otherwise face a disproportionate financial and time burden on them when really there's not an awful lot to them in a monetary sense. So I want to thank the chair Jamie Strange the committee and I want to thank the Minister for his hard work and that of the officials. It was clearly a committee that worked well and have come up with something which as the chair said strikes the right balance. The chair said and my colleague Rachel Brooking has also referred to this as moving from an Act that used to be something that controlled the birth and death of a committee into something that is now going to help govern and guide the life of a society while still maintaining its independence. It seems to me that it is peculiarly appropriate on this day when the Labour Party and Labour Government has made a series of announcements about the greater support we will be giving to our community that we are also enacting—I hope—this bill which takes something that was cradle and grave and turns it into something that is cradle to grave in this very important area to help those who do such important work around our community. I commend this bill to the House.