SpeechPreambleDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): So thank you Mr Chair. I would like to talk about the preamble of this legislation. This legislation actually is quite straightforward legislation. It provides a technical fix to I would say a technical error that exists in legislation. It's not entirely an error but there is a difference in two pieces of legislation about how the Auckland regional amenities should be complying when it comes to their financial reporting. So as we know the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 requires them to provide financial statements and the standard that is prescribed in that legislation is called the New Zealand International Financial Reporting Standards. But now these amenities are also charitable entities so they comply with the Charities Act 2005 as well and if we look at the standard which is required according to the Charities Act 2005 it's different—that is the generally accepted accounting practice standard. So the difference here is that the standard which is required according to the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008 is not applicable for not-for-profit entities and all these Auckland region amenities are not-for-profit entities. The standard which is prescribed in the Charities Act 2005 is more applicable to them and so it makes sense that they are providing their financial statements and they are preparing their financial statements according to the standard which is in the Charities Act 2005. Now because of the change which was made a while ago—that was the 2014 2015 time—what happened was that the standard now that is required according to these two pieces of legislation is different and these entities have to prepare two financial statements according to these two standards which makes no sense because it's not like they're trying to hide any information or provide any misinformation or information that they don't want to provide is hidden. So there is no misuse of a system misuse of any resource. This is purely technical—purely technical. So this bill is about fixing it changing the requirement in the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act to the requirement which is in the Charities Act 2005. So this will give them a big relief because at the moment it's just duplicating their work. We don't want them to do that. We want them to deliver the services they deliver to various communities. There are nine Auckland regional amenities and these Auckland regional amenities are Auckland Observatory and Planetarium Trust Board Auckland Philharmonia Trust Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust Auckland Theatre Company Ltd Coastguard Northern Region Incorporated New Zealand Opera Limited Surf Life Saving Northern Region the Auckland Festival Trust and WaterSafe Auckland Incorporated. I'm sure that members especially members that are based in Auckland will know these entities. They do a great job in the community. I'm based in Mt Roskill and I would say that according to the previous boundary of the electorate the Stardome Observatory was part of that electorate and they do a lot of work with spreading awareness about the knowledge of space and the universe. They run several programmes not only for children but grown-ups can also go and enjoy that kind of observatory and planetarium atmosphere they provide there raising awareness about space and the universe and how it works.So these amenities as I said they'd like to hold on to their charitable status and for them it's really important that they're complying with the Charities Act 2005. So it will be really useful if we make this change to the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act through this amendment legislation to allow them to prepare just one set of financial statements. So overall it's great legislation I would say and there is a lot of support from all of course amenities. They wanted it. When I was talking to director David Houldsworth I had a discussion and straight away I agreed to sponsor this bill because I could see that this is a simple fix a technical fix which is not going to do any harm to anybody and actually is going to bring some benefits to all these amenities.So this legislation actually is something that will help all these amenities. I know that they did write to all Auckland-based members of Parliament and I don't know if all MPs responded to their letter but I was really grateful to pick it up as a bill here. I'm really grateful to sponsor this bill and I really look forward to seeing support especially from Auckland-based MPs for this legislation. Thank you Mr Chairman.