Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill — Second Reading 
Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill — Second Reading 
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PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this second reading of the Auditor Regulation and External Reporting Bill. I note that the presiding officer has changed in appearance in the last 5 minutes but I also congratulate Assistant Speaker H V Ross Robertson on his appointment. He is a good man from South Auckland he has worked hard in this House over 24 years and he has served his local community. I wish to acknowledge his ascendance to the role of Assistant Speaker a prestigious role. 
I will talk quickly about this bill. Minister Tolley quite clearly in her representations this morning talked about the nature of the bill. The bill is overdue. It is overdue because we have had a period when the non-regulation or self-regulation of auditors for financial issues has not worked and it has not worked for several reasons. This bill will address some issues around the licensing of auditors and the registration of audit firms in order to get quality people behind audits. After all it is really not about the regulation; it is about the people who are involved in auditing financial accounts. I take the point also of the previous speaker Mr Parker who talked about compliance costs. But I say that the cost of finance company failures over the last 7 to 10 years has been great and that cost needs to be mitigated through oversight and through the regulation of this industry. This bill comes at a vital time to restore confidence in our financial markets and to restore confidence in capital markets in order for firms to raise capital easily and to build on the economic growth that this country certainly deserves. 
This bill brings about two things. It is about establishing a licensing regime but it also establishes and consolidates the accounting and auditing standards setting set by the Accounting Standards Review Board which will of course become the external reporting board. All I ask is that when these rules are set in place the relevant regulators do their job and are well-resourced and they enforce the laws that we as a Parliament set out. I think that is the critical part of this legislation. There is no point in having laws around regulating financial markets if those laws are then not enforced and the resources not put in place. 
This legislation may I say is part of a wider broader scheme of laws we have brought to the House which have had multiparty support in relation to the set-up of the Financial Markets Authority and the regulations of securities trustees. This is just another building block in securities regulations that we as a National Government have brought to this House. We are very proud of this bill and of the work that members on all sides of our Commerce Committee have put into it. 
I will make just a final point about the limitation of auditors’ liability; I think the last speaker actually summed it up quite well. It is a complex issue and it does add to compliance costs which we as parliamentarians are aware that we want to avoid and reduce. But at some point we need to do this. I look forward to the Securities Act review—which will certainly be proceeded with later this year—in addressing that matter; members of our committee found it to be a little bit of an issue. I support this bill and commend it to the House.