SpeechAUCKLAND REGIONAL AMENITIES FUNDING AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): I move That the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Amendment Bill be now read a third time. As a sponsor of the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Amendment Bill it's my pleasure to take this call to highly commend this bill to the House. This bill was introduced on 12 September 2019 and it's great to see that this bill has come up for its final—that is the third—reading today despite us missing so many members' days due to COVID-19.At the time when I had a discussion with the chair of the Auckland Regional Amenities Board I did say to him that we will do our best to see that this bill goes through the parliamentary process as soon as possible. So I'm sure all nine amenities that are specified in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 and the Auckland Regional Amenities Board will be quite pleased to see that this bill has come up for its third reading. The Auckland Regional Amenities Board did a great job of lobbying for this bill and it is a great privilege to be the sponsor of this legislation. They wrote to all Auckland-based members of Parliament because I believe members of Parliament from all sides would have something to do with these Auckland regional amenities at some point because they do some really important work in the community. That's how I got in touch with the Stardome Observatory which was part of Mt Roskill but because of recent boundary changes now it's in another electorate a neighbouring electorate.So other than the Stardome Observatory the other Auckland regional amenities are Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra which is situated on Queen Street in Auckland; Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust in Mechanics Bay; Auckland Theatre Company in Mount Eden; Coastguard Northern Region in Mechanics Bay; New Zealand Opera in Parnell; Surf Lifesaving Northern Region in Mechanics Bay; Auckland Arts Festival in Auckland Central; and WaterSafe Auckland also known as Drowning Prevention Auckland in St Marys Bay. So I said that I had this great opportunity to be the sponsor of this legislation because of my relationship with the Stardome Observatory which is one of the amenities that is based in Royal Oak which was part of Mount Roskill where I'm based as a National list member of Parliament. After the first reading of this bill this bill was referred to the Governance and Administration Committee on 25 September 2019 and I had the opportunity to sub on that select committee as I'm not a regular member of that select committee. And I want to thank the chair Dr Jian Yang and deputy chair Ginny Andersen for their contributions in the select committee process. I also want to thank Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment officials Parliamentary Counsel Office and committee clerks for their help during the discussions on this bill in the select committee. The nine amenities that are specified in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 and the Auckland Regional Amenities Board are fully supportive of this legislation going through. Currently these amenities are technically in breach of the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 because since the change that was made to the Charities Act 2005 these amenities have been preparing their financial statements according to the standard that is required as per the Charities Act 2005 but Audit New Zealand which audits these amenities for their compliance with the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act has given a waiver on the understanding that this bill will pass.In very simple terms what this bill does is it takes away the requirement of preparing financial statements as per the New Zealand International Financial Reporting Standards which is required under the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act and it replaces them with the standard which is the Public Benefit Entity Financial Reporting Standard in the Charities Act 2005. So it's a very simple change. It is a technical error this bill is going to fix. Now what is important to note is that these two standards are different in the sense—they're not too different but they are different—that it requires these amenities to support these two pieces of legislation to prepare two sets of financial statements which is just unnecessarily adding another layer of work for these amenities. So because these amenities are charities they are registered as charitable organisations; that is not for profit. And the standard which is in the Charities Act 2005 is the one that is more suitable the one which is more fit for purpose. [Interruption] I know that some members are getting really agitated because they didn't have the opportunity to work with this amenity that is based in Mount Roskill Mr Speaker—Madam Speaker. Sorry I see the change. But that just reflects on that relationship and the working ethics that you have in the electorate where you're based. And yes I had the opportunity to work with them and I'm the sponsor of this legislation. Coming back to the bill this legislation is to fix the error that has been there since 2015 because these entities are public charitable entities and the standard that is required under the Charities Act 2005 is more suitable for these entities. Why should we add another layer of work for these entities? So this legislation by fixing this technical error will actually remove that extra layer of work that is required of these nine amenities that are specified in the Auckland Regional Amenities Act.The changes that this bill intends to make would start applying from financial years that are in progress on the date of the Royal assent or the most recently completed financial year but only if the Royal assent was given before the statutory deadline for entities to lodge their annual report. These deadlines are three months after balance date for the nine specified amenities; five months after balance date for the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Board. This is really good because it gives absolute clarity to all entities that are involved. On top of these changes it's important that I mention that there is a retrospective validation in this legislation but it's important to note that the retrospective validation is not a blanket validation for non-compliance. It's only for entities that have been complying with the Charities Act 2005. They will be getting this retrospective validation. So yes the bill is intended to validate matters generally understood to be lawful but are in fact unlawful but they are unlawful as a result of a technical error. So it's a bill that fixes this technical error in the principal Act; that is the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 by changing the standard that is in the Charities Act 2005 for financial reporting for these amenities. All these nine amenities are really looking forward to seeing this bill passed because they are sitting with this burden of non-compliance at the moment. This legislation was absolutely needed to fix this technical error. Without this legislation we could not fix this error. It is a great pleasure to be the sponsor of this legislation. I had support for this bill from all parties and that's why it has come to this stage and I am looking forward to that support continuing in this reading as well to support all nine amenities that are specified in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008. Thank you Madam Speaker.