Luxon ChristopherCHRISTOPHER LUXON (National—Botany): It's a real privilege also to take a short call on this Incorporated Societies Bill. I do want to acknowledge the Minister. I want to acknowledge the select committee. I wasn't part of that but having read the reports this is obviously all really good stuff and common-sense things to be doing. We talked about it before. There's 23000 incorporated societies across New Zealand. They range from large ones like New Zealand Rugby right down to one like the Banks Peninsula War Memorial where I actually spend a lot of time on devotion on the way to Akaroa each year at the campground there. They only have $5000 or $6000 worth of revenue each year. And you can see the amazing work that these small and large organisations do all across New Zealand when you travel around and it's all staffed by people who are wonderful volunteers.Mr Speaker I want to put it to you—I know you're a gardener but if you're actually free on 6 March in 2022 next year beautiful sunny day we have something out in Botany in East Auckland called the Brit & Euro Car Club. It was started by a Renaissance man a bit like yourself Richard Waugh. He's a Methodist minister. He's also an aviation historian. He's the chaplain for the Erebus victims and families and he's also started this car club and it's basically just for British and Euro cars. I myself have a 1966 Riley Elf and I would like to get it up there. It's red but I'd like to get it painted blue at some point. But that aside you can see the mighty Escort you can see—SPEAKER: No keep it original.CHRISTOPHER LUXON: —sorry—the Rolls-Royce. But it's an incredible event and it started off just a few years back and Richard and the team formed an incorporated society and they've now got 1200 exhibitors there. They had over 10000 people come from all over Auckland to come and see this last year phenomenal activity for the local community and just a wonderful event. In fact my colleague Naisi Chen was there as well and I think you could testify to how good an event it actually was. But as we said these rules are very outdated. We got a great history lesson from Maureen Pugh. Again the Speaker was right yet again. There were three New Zealanders in that 1908 team that was an Australasian team—not just a New Zealand team or an Australian team; an Australasian team. Thankfully we have stopped doing that now. There's nothing worse than being part of Australia I would put it to you all! But what I'd say is it's been outdated and probably the only criticism I'd say is it's taken us a long time to get this really basic common-sense thing done. We started the conversation in 2015; we're now sitting here in 2021. It will be a slow implementation. And I'll just put it to you if you're out there doing community work as a community organiser or you're in a business world maybe six years to get something done like this wouldn't be kind of acceptable but it is fair that we have a modern law it's fit for purpose it's up to scratch and it's actually really helpful for all those volunteers that are deeply involved in it.At the heart of it this bill is doing something I think quite important. It's distinguishing between the really large incorporated societies and the much smaller ones and it's actually changing the cost and compliance burden and obligations that are on each of them and making it proportionate. I think that's a really fantastic thing. So you see the large organisations yes they should be compliant with generally accepted accounting practice laws and principles but actually smaller ones have much less compliance as a result. We've got smaller society thresholds. There was a good conversation around that from both sides of the House around why that's been a very good thing having operating expenses and also revenue less than $50000 to distinguish you as a small society. And it's important because those societies lack those resources and expertise that make that compliance so difficult. So it is really a fantastic bill. It's going to make a big difference to so many people and so many volunteers—the people who wake up get out each morning and decide they want to make their community a better place. And we all know we'll get the community and the country we ultimately deserve but it requires each of us as citizens to step up and we see citizens stepping up and volunteering in this way. This is an incredibly good bill for New Zealand. It's a great piece of legislation that's going to deliver fantastic outcomes. I do want to say before I commend the bill to this House that I do want to state in this House that I am backing the Thames Valley Swamp Foxes who are playing South Canterbury in Timaru this weekend. I think they'll win big. They are well coached. They've got a great team around them and I'm looking forward—they're playing in the Meads Cup and it's the final this weekend so I wish them all the very best. And on that note I support and commend this bill to the House.