Lotu-Iiga Sam: Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3440. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 Malo le soifua. It is a pleasure to take a short call on this the third reading of the Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill. I want to support and acknowledge the chief Government whip again for bringing this bill to the House alongside Minister Amy Adams who was the originator of the bill. I also note as other speakers have said today the constructive work of the Commerce Committee on it. We grappled with a number of issues in this bill and I think we came to what is a good conclusion. 
As we know the Charities Commission data indicates that there are more than 25000 registered charities in New Zealand. The sector is quite large. It receives in excess of $1 billion worth of donations. Many in our communities rely on these donations and many spend countless hours standing on busy street corners raising money for what are worthy organisations. I include a number of MPs in that who raise money for Plunket Daffodil Day and many other charitable causes that are dear to our hearts. We do this willingly. We are happy to play a small part and contribute to the work that a number of charities do. 
But as has already been expressed in this House and across the country there is concern that a disproportionate percentage of donated moneys is retained by third-party collectors to cover their costs and that the members of the public making those donations are not quite aware of this. In fact the other issue is that the concern has actually led to members of the public not donating because of grave concern that their moneys are not going to the causes for which they are intended. Those concerns have increased. Media reports have shown that it is not uncommon for some collections to actually retain up to 90 percent of moneys donated by the public. That has led many to seek to bring this bill to the House. It is important that we have faith in the system of donations. It is part of our Kiwi culture. It is part of the way of life in New Zealand that we donate to charities and that we support charities with our free time. The bill is designed to increase the transparency and public accountability of third-party businesses. 
As my colleague David Clendon has already said the bill had to be altered in many ways during the select committee process. We came to the conclusion that the regulation-making power by Order in Council of the Governor-General was the appropriate way forward in determining how we would treat this area of the law. Regulations can be made prescribing different requirements particularly around disclosure of information about fund-raisers about charitable organisations and the relationship between those parties. It also looks at regulation powers. It looks at the financial benefits of the fund-raiser or any person other than a charity who will or may receive moneys from those requests. It is quite a wide regulation-making power. 
In itself this bill I think has actually raised awareness of this issue not just here in Parliament but certainly across the country. We had a number of submissions from charitable organisations that were fearful of the original provisions of the bill. They feared that they would be captured and there would be unintended consequences particularly where charitable organisations had used professional marketers who would gain trails for commissions from donations that would extend out into not just the near future but the long-term future. This bill raised the awareness of people out in our community and it encourages members of the public to get more information when donating to the charities of their preference. 
In summary this is a sensible bill and it is a pragmatic piece of legislation that the many parties in this House came together to produce. In my view it will restore some level of public confidence in charitable appeals. People can be confident once these regulations are put in place that their donations will go at least to their desired causes. I want to again thank the two members who brought this bill to the House. I certainly as a member of the Commerce Committee commend this bill to the House.