Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. Look the ACT Party supports this bill but we do have significant concerns based on new information that the Minister introduced to the House tonight. We've got to the third reading and the ACT Party's had the opportunity to ask the Minister some questions around how the levies will be collected how they'll be determined and essentially what the overhead will be for the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that will be applied to all of the registers; all the companies; all of the charities like Coastguard for example or Surf Life Saving; and of course all of the unions who are also registered under this piece of legislation.So the ACT Party's raised concerns. Will the money collected as levies actually be correctly and fairly attributed back to the efficient operation of the registers that all of these different organisations these 21 registers are intended to administer? So we do have concerns but the committee of the whole House has been assured—according to that Labour member Ingrid Leary she's been assured by officials they've had advice. Of course the ACT Party does believe that business should be administered efficiently. It was of great concern to me when I sat in consideration of advice from officials when I asked them Couldn't you have administered this with a simple system of cost and time allocation collecting the fees aggregating the funds and then allocating the staff time back to each register by using this thing they use in the private sector called a time sheet?" But apparently that was a mystery to the Government officials this concept of a time sheet.So then we moved on to the next issue which is: well if you don't use a time sheet what system will you use? In fact they said "Let us get back to you. Oh by the way how we collect the levy money will actually be described in the secondary legislation in the regulations under this Act." So the ACT Party despite our grave misgivings—at this point in time we support the bill at the third reading and we put our trust in the words of Minister David Clark who assured us that there would be cost savings that there would be efficiencies and that there would be value for money.But then we come to this matter of the new information the Minister introduced around the climate-related disclosures. And of course the climate Minister himself is in the House tonight no doubt to make sure that these climate-related disclosures are included under the administration of the Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill. In fact we only learnt by asking the Minister under Schedule 14(h) the Financial Markets Conduct Act.Hon Dr David Clark: It was in a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) tabled a couple of days ago.SIMON COURT: Well the Minister says it was in an SOP tabled a couple of days ago. Now the Minister may not be aware but he's part of a Government that put 24 bills into this House under urgency including bills that potentially like the Firearms Amendment Act had actually two years of firearms licence holders ranges and clubs telling the Government and the Minister of Police that they urgently needed law reform. Nothing was done. The ACT Party supports that. But actually if you think about some of the other bills forced through under urgency—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Return to the bill.SIMON COURT: So I asked the Minister: "Climate-related disclosures where is this mentioned in this piece of legislation the Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill?" He pointed the ACT Party to the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. But again I'll come back to the point. That was never tabled at select committee. That is new information. And to introduce an amendment like that under urgency where the ACT Party didn't have an opportunity to review the basis of that need which clearly officials have told the Minister this would be a good time to just make sure that we can lawfully collect levies from companies which we forced into a climate-related disclosures regime—another piece of woke virtue-signalling by this Government obsessed with climate change when Kiwis are actually concerned about violent crime and the cost of living. And so the ACT Part again—we are putting our trust and faith in MBIE that once-great ministry set up by a doyen of industry Steven Joyce when he was a Minister. That's right. For people who've only come to politics in Parliament recently and don't remember how good business was when proper business leaders set up television stations for example and when telecommunications companies were privatised and New Zealanders got the stuff called fibre—back in the good old days. That was when MBIE was set up.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Back to the good old bill.SIMON COURT: Thank you Madam Speaker. So if you think about what this bill does—what does this bill do? It's yet another piece of legislation that makes it easier for Government departments to do their work. But what we didn't hear was: does it make it easier more efficient and more cost-effective for the companies or the charities who are subject to this Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill to get value for money and good service? We don't know. But the ACT Party in an act of faith have put our trust and confidence in the officials at MBIE that they will achieve cost savings and that the move from collecting fees for example from union organisations which we assume—we assume—were not one of the organisations that had underpaid fees for all of those years; one of the organisations that had underpaid and therefore money had to be taken say from Coastguard or from the Red Cross or one of the actual charities and used to administer the union accounts. We don't know that because that wasn't revealed at select committee. We can only assume that it's been lost in the mists of time. This has been going on for 15 to 20 years we've heard this unlawful administration of companies and building societies and charities under the Act. I think it's important that we draw the attention of the viewers at home those people watching Parliament TV at 11.30 p.m. on a Thursday night and want to know what earth is Parliament doing sitting at 11.30 at night—or those listing on AM 882 that radio station. If you don't live in the city and you can't get FM—maybe you're a farmer maybe you're driving a tractor and you're laying down a crop—and you're listening to this debate at home and you want to know why are we debating under urgency the Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill. Well the ACT Party says look we believe that it's important that the administration of Government is carried out in the most cost-effective way possible. That's why we're supporting this bill.But again remarkable that the Minister has chosen to lay a Supplementary Order Paper an amendment to the bill on the Table in the House apparently just a couple of days ago which brings the requirement for companies who are subject to the climate-related disclosures legislation that they'll actually be forced to pay levies to have their information administered under this amendment to the Companies Act.For the viewers at home engrossed by this debate; for those—potentially—farmers driving a tractor late at night with the floodlit fields before them tuned into AM 882 while they ponder the mysteries of democracy—and the Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill just one of the 24 bills introduced by the Labour Party into this House under urgency on Tuesday. While they ponder whether democracy is really delivering for them and whether they want the current party that has a majority in the House to continue next year or maybe give their vote to another party I just want them to know that the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers the ACT Party—the only party that actually stands up for consumers and taxpayers—will support this bill the Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill on the basis that the MBIE office administers the companies far more efficiently. Thank you Madam Speaker."