Leary Ingrid; Rurawhe AdrianINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): We've heard it all tonight about the importance of incorporated societies particularly around rugby clubs and leisure groups and so on but I would also like to tautoko those who have talked about the importance of incorporated societies as part of the third sector in holding Government and other organisations to account. There is one being formed at the moment in my own electorate of Taieri where a bunch of residents are concerned about a proposed landfill that is being proposed at Brighton Beach near a creek and rather than try and go through the process and the system as individuals they have an understanding that their collective voice will have more impact and they are going through the process of forming an incorporated society which is the right thing to do certainly in terms of being able to get advice and share information and share the collective passion for protecting their patch in the world.So that is just an example of the sort of third-sector use of incorporated societies that really adds to New Zealand's mana and reputation internationally as a transparent society—and in fact to our ranking as No. 1 out of 180 societies last year ranked by Transparency International. It is not just our public sector; it is also our third sector that shows this level of transparency and good governance. But as we've heard tonight the law is out of date and we also need to have better governance structures within incorporated societies and better accountability. We also need them to be fair to the officers who take on the roles—that they understand what their duties and obligations are which is only fair. We've heard that we need proportionality on the financial reporting and I'm sure that will form a good part of the submissions that come in to the select committee which is the rightful place to have that discussion. I would encourage all incorporated societies to make their submissions around that so we get that level of proportionality correct in terms of being able to get the accountability that's needed the stability that's needed but also to make it fair on those societies to not over burden them and to allow for the great diversity in representation that we need on these societies because every time we add a layer of governance we may exclude people. So we need to get that proportionality right and it will be great to see that at the select committee.Just one final comment from me is around A and P shows. Having part of my electorate be rural these are a really important feature of the rural calendar and we've had them in Balclutha and Middlemarch and Northern Taieri. There was some discussion at several points of the long history of this Act about including A and P shows into the legislation. In fact they have been carved out; they will remain under the Minister of Agriculture and the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act. The submission made by the Royal Agricultural Society on behalf of its 96 A and P society members stated that all its members wished to remain firmly under the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act. So for anybody in my electorate who is concerned that this is going to make changes to those A and P bodies that do such a fantastic job in putting on events that promote farming and rural life and bring our communities together you don't need to worry; you are still being governed under the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act. There is some concern that that Act is outdated and incomplete and inconsistent with modern governance principles and practices but I am sure there will be another opportunity to look at that and in the meantime for the other incorporated societies that are captured by this bill I do commend it to the House.Motion agreed to.Bill read a first time. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is That the Incorporated Societies Bill be considered by the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee. Motion agreed to.Bill referred to the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee.