Kerekere ElizabethDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): Tēnā koe. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to take a short call in support of the Charities Amendment Bill. And I thank the Minister the Hon Priyanca Radhakrishnan for bringing this bill to the House.The Greens value a strong independent tangata whenua community and volunteer sector that contributes to our social environmental cultural physical spiritual and economic wellbeing. Like others in this House I've spent much of my life in this broad and wide-ranging sector on many committees boards and trusts. My first role was as treasurer of the Māori Women's Welfare League as a junior member in Dunedin at 15 years of age and I'm currently listed on the register as being on the trust board of two charities one of which is Tīwhanawhana Trust. That is for takatāpui to tell our stories build our communities and leave a legacy. It has been a long road to get to this bill. When the Charities Amendment Bill was introduced in 2017 an earlier iteration the Greens originally opposed it because it would have reduced appeal rights for charities. The relevant amendment was removed at later stages because of the concerns that were raised by the tangata whenua community and volunteer sector. The expansion of objection and appeal rights in this bill is therefore more aligned with our previous statements. The submission process for the department's review closed in May of 2019 and I would just like to do a shout-out to Sue Barker Charities Law who we met with at the time who consulted individually with over 200 organisations and key people. I'm sad to say that when that process was actually paused in May of 2020 they were relieved because it seemed like the bill was getting worse instead of better. The 28000 or so tangata whenua community and volunteer registered entities affected by this bill have waited a long time. So we very much look forward to many of you taking part in this select committee process and making submissions. We want to hear what you have to say about it.As my colleagues have identified the bill makes practical changes that include enabling simpler financial reporting especially from very small charities to reduce the burden of unnecessary compliance; improving access to justice for charities in the appeal process that is more affordable and at scale—a small charity with hardly any money in the bank should not have to go to a High Court to get a decision—promoting transparency and fairness through enhancing the decision-making requirements for these charities; clarifying the role of officers supporting the governance of charities; and improving all of those regulatory compliance and enforcement tools. The Greens welcome greater Government trust in recognition of the tangata whenua community and volunteer sector. We support having the Charities Commission now the Department of Internal Affairs focused on registration and tax issues and balancing the encouragement of charitable donations against the risk of scam charities for tax avoidance. In terms of the age thresholds identified in this bill the Green Party youth policy acknowledges the mana and the mauri of young people. We accept the 18-year-old age limit proposed for at least one officer on a given charity because it means 16- and 17-year-olds can still hold another or all of the remaining positions. Finally we are pleased that the approximately 60 percent of the estimated number of Māori charities which are very small will be affected by this. It will make their lives easier. They'll have considerably reduced compliance and hopefully reporting that is better suited to their needs. We do acknowledge though that this is still a very Eurocentric framework that our Māori our iwi our hapū and our whānau organisations are working within. And so we note things like how to deal with kōhā principles of reciprocal obligation are not really addressed in this bill. Those are things we will raise through this process. In the meantime we commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.