Pugh Maureen; Rurawhe AdrianMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I stand in support of the Incorporated Societies Bill tonight in its first reading. As we've heard from many of the speakers on this bill most of us have had some experience in our own communities about being involved in incorporated societies. I do note the many examples that have been given tonight. But I'd just like to run through some of the 23000—I'm not going to read them all—incorporated societies that do appear on the register. What they do is they represent sporting bodies like New Zealand Rugby—that has a reported income of $162 million a year—and then it ranges back to things like the war memorial societies with maybe $5000 or $6000 income a year. This bill covers a huge range of activities—cultural sporting education a lot of social services incorporated societies philanthropy organisations emergency relief environmental protection animal protection and religious. So when we're talking about this bill we're actually talking about a huge influence that incorporated societies have in New Zealand.It's no secret as the member who's just resumed her seat Naisi Chen also said that this Act is very old—1908. It does need modernising and the language does need to be more appropriate for 2021. I note in it that it still refers to the fines that must be paid in shillings and I would even hazard a guess that there would be some people in this House tonight who don't even know what a shilling was or never got to spend a shilling.Kieran McAnulty: What's a shilling?MAUREEN PUGH: It's a shilling. Kieran McAnulty: Is it the same as a threepence?MAUREEN PUGH: It's more than a threepence. Kieran McAnulty: Is it?MAUREEN PUGH: Yes it is. It's about four times more than a threepence. As you can tell the language does need to be modernised. I think one of the cautions that we need to have with a bill like this too is that we know that there are some financial responsibilities that people who hold the officer roles in these societies need to be responsible for. This bill seeks to put those in the same category as directors and have the same responsibilities as they do. But I think we've also got to be really careful that we find the balance between the responsibilities that directors have on companies versus the benefit that some of these smaller organisations have in our communities and that we don't make it such an onerous process that we scare a lot of our volunteers away from being involved in these organisations because as many have said tonight they are very core to some of our smaller communities and some of our bigger communities because of the role that they perform in those communities.I think the select committee is going to have its work cut out for it as we progress this bill through the House in finding that balance between the fiduciary responsibilities and the ability for smaller organisations to be able to be maintained without the onerous obligations that may come with it especially with organisations that have very small incomes that then have to be responsible for expensive audit fees. So we will need to keep that in mind as we progress this bill. But there are some aspects of it that I think are very worthwhile and again I think the select committee will turn its mind to the detail around the minimum number of members that must be involved. At the moment the bill is proposing 10. Whether or not that's going to suit a huge amount of smaller communities I think the select committee process will flesh that out as it calls for submissions on this bill.The House is in agreement and no doubt that's because we're supporting it because it was actually initiated by the National Government a few years ago. It has taken its time to work its way through on to the Order Paper and we certainly will be taking an active part in the committee process. I commend the bill. Thank you.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call Arena Williams—five minutes.