Radhakrishnan Priyanca; Salesa JennyCHARITIES AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector): I present a legislative statement on the Charities Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: I move That the Charities Amendment Bill be now read a second time.Charities are a core component of a well-functioning cohesive society and support our nation's wellbeing stability and health. Charities deliver a number of critical services that many rely on and step in when times are particularly tough. We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently after the severe weather events. Charities bring people together—people who care about a cause and making a difference people who want to help those less fortunate and make a positive impact on our society. To say that the work that charities do is valuable would be an understatement and I want to take this opportunity to thank the charitable sector for their work. I am sure that every member of this House has interacted with a charity at some point as a volunteer an officer of a charity a donor or even a beneficiary. The charitable sector is where I spent most of my working life before entering Parliament and I have experienced firsthand some of the barriers that charities encounter in their day-to-day mahi. That's why I'm pleased to see the Charities Amendment Bill have its second reading today. This bill amends the Charities Act 2005 which is a key piece of legislation for the sector. It was established to provide a voluntary registration reporting and monitoring regime to ensure that entities receiving tax benefits continue to carry out their charitable purpose. The Act has been in place for almost 20 years and it was time to ensure that the legislative settings are still fit for purpose. Changes to the wider operating environment have prompted the need to modernise the Act; we got this feedback loud and clear from the sector. For example there have been changes to other legislation that charities need to comply with and also relatively low and declining rates of compliance with the Act. This bill makes practical improvements to the Act to make it easier for charities to continue with their work while balancing the need for transparency and accountability. The bill makes changes that will increase transparency improve access to justice and simplify financial reporting that's required from small charities. Charities should be able to focus on the valuable work that they do while enjoying the benefits of being registered. However it is also important that the public continues to have trust and confidence in the sector. This bill seeks to strike a balance between these two goals. Before I get into the finer detail of the bill I would like to acknowledge some people who have helped contribute to its development up until this point. Can I thank the chair of the Social Services and Community Committee Angie Warren-Clark and committee members for their constructive consideration of the bill. I am aware that several committee members have extensive experience in the charitable sector and I'm confident that the committee has used this experience to improve the bill. I appreciate the time the committee has taken to understand this bill and the views of submitters and I recommend that the House take note of the select committee's report and adopt the amendments recommended by the committee. I'd also like to acknowledge and thank all those who shared their views on this bill. Their submissions have improved the bill and I appreciate the time they took to prepare written submissions and to appear before the committee. One submitter succinctly noted that the kaupapa of bringing the laws governing charities into the modern era was important and that legislation should cover all charities fairly and equitably to ensure that those who need their services receive them. I acknowledge submitters who have engaged with this work since the Act's initial review back in 2018. Submitters expressed their appreciation for the ongoing opportunity to provide input on the bill and other submitters agreed that the resulting legislation reflects that input. In addition to these comments there are some matters raised by submitters that I would like to discuss further. The bill aims to remove red tape for charities to allow them to focus on their day-to-day work. The bill does this by enabling simpler financial reporting from small charities to reduce the compliance burden of reporting. Charities have a duty to financially report each year to ensure transparency and accountability in their operations. Submitters emphasised the need for simpler reporting standards due to the compliance burden created and outlined that current reporting under the tier 4 standard is much too onerous for small charities who typically have minimal resources at their disposal. I am pleased that this provision was met with overwhelming support by the sector. Making practical improvements to the Act is crucial to support charities to get on with their work and reduce that financial reporting that I mentioned for small charities. That's a real-life example of this change. The bill aims to improve public accountability and transparency by improving the mechanisms to strengthen the governance of charities. One way that the bill does this is by amending the definition of officer" to ensure that people with significant influence over the substantial decisions of the entity are captured in the definition. Officers of a charity are not just limited to the treasurer or the chief executive (CE) of a charity and this change will ensure that people with influence over decision making and the direction of the charity are appropriately defined as officers. Support for this provision emphasised that stakeholders funders and the public are entitled to expect the highest standard of best-practice governance for those who lead charitable entities and that amending the definition of "officer" is clearly intended to improve the accountability and governance of charities. The bill also introduces a new requirement for charities to review their governance procedures at least three-yearly to ensure that they are current and assist the entity to achieve its charitable purpose. Submitters commented that this would improve governance practices in the charitable sector and that it aligns with good-practice guidance. Overall the provisions aim to improve the standard of governance of charitable entities while not unduly overburdening organisations and I consider that the amended provision reflects this intent.Improving access to justice for all charities is another key change in the bill. The bill allows more decisions to be appealed to improve access to justice. Rather than just limiting it to the Charities Registration Board decisions some of the more significant decisions of the chief executive of the Department of Internal Affairs can be appealed. Submitters in favour of this provision highlighted how the expansion of the appealable decisions heavily favours charities and improves their access to justice. Some submitters maintained that this expansion should not be limited to just significant decisions and should include all decisions of the registration board and of the chief executive but that would be impractical. It would be impractical to broaden this to include all decisions as this could prevent the CE from exercising their essential compliance and enforcement functions and that's not the intent of this bill. The amended provision includes more decisions by the CE that charities may be able to appeal and maintains the improved access to justice that is intended by this bill.So to sum up so many of our charities carry out important work to support people who are struggling or going through a particularly tough time. This bill aims to make it easier for charities to operate while also maintaining public support for the sector which is critical. This in my view will continue to support and strengthen the charitable sector. For that reason I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."