Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I too stand in support of this bill the Incorporated Societies Bill. It has been encouraging to hear the commentary from across the House around this bill but I thought in order to put it into context to remind the House that actually the bill that this is replacing was originally passed in 1908. We are talking 113 years ago so obviously this is well overdue for a bit of a rewrite. But I thought to put it in context around the society that the legislators were living in that I would have a look at what was going on in 1908 and come up with some of the highlights from that era.The main trunk railway line opened in that year which was a massive undertaking in this country. We also got our first Olympic gold medal in London—sorry it was a bronze but it was our first Olympic medal—Hon Member: In what sport?MAUREEN PUGH: He was a walker Harry Kerr. But one of the most significant—SPEAKER: Walking for Australia. MAUREEN PUGH: Pardon?SPEAKER: Walking for Australia—Australasia I think. MAUREEN PUGH: Oh OK. Thank you. I'm impressed by that. But one of the most significant—SPEAKER: I can't remember it directly just to be clear.MAUREEN PUGH: I hope that's coming off my time! Thank you for that helpful interjection Mr Speaker! I was going to go on to say that one of the most significant events that happened in West Coast - Tasman was the Blackball miners' strike that happened in that year. At that time it was the longest strike in New Zealand's history; 11 weeks it lasted. And then when we went on to the biggest strike actually Blackball was the last of those unions to go back to work as well. So they're famous for digging their toes in. Now Ernest Rutherford also you know the father of nuclear physics was awarded his Nobel Prize for chemistry. A huge achievement for this country was the population growth: we reached 1 million people in 1908. And of course we had a general election that year and no surprise back in 1908 no women were elected. In fact 25 years it took for our first woman to be elected. So in terms of the Incorporated Societies Bill we have come a long way and without dragging and kicking this piece of legislation to the select committee it has I think reached a really good outcome. As many of the speakers have said one of the main aims of course is to make sure that it's not a huge encumbrance on some of our smaller organisations. I did not sit on the select committee but I do have a great interest in this bill because of course it impacts on many of the volunteer organisations across the country. And as we all know those organisations and the volunteers that keep them going are simply that: they are volunteers. And some of the huge you know administration burden that many of them face was always front of mind obviously for the select committee to make sure that we didn't actually drive people out of being willing volunteers into some of these organisations. It was probably coincidental that this bill is 113 years old and the select committee received 113 submissions so one for every year of its existence. And that's certainly no reflection on the number of organisations that this bill will impact on. So in terms of some of the select committee feedback they obviously cover a wide variety and I've picked out a couple that were of particular interest to me. Of course Volunteering New Zealand had some really good submissions—ideas and feedback—that obviously the committee has taken heed of. But another one that's probably as Todd McClay mentioned before you know some of those smaller organisations—but we also have societies that are umbrella organisations for other smaller groups and they're very important to the structures as well. One is the New Zealand Federation of Motoring Clubs and I didn't realise this until I read their submission but they actually also are an umbrella group for the hot-rod clubs around New Zealand of which I have a particular interest. But we have a whole lot of others that we know are core to our communities. We have our sports clubs—you know our rugby and cricket and league—but we also have other you know recreational groups that look after reserves or parks and you know even the astronomical association put in a submission. But then we have the bigger ones like Federated Farmers and the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association all having an interest in what is in this legislation. Now in the original bill there were quite a few gaps and a lot of those gaps have been filled over time through case law. But of course with a lot of very small organisations and societies taking something to court to get an outcome was not always possible simply because of the cost of going down that path. But also as I mentioned before many of them are operated by volunteers and that's not what they got involved in the organisation for. So it is imperative that we as legislators put in place these types of laws that will fill the gaps that have not been filled in the case law over time. I did take note that speakers have talked about grants—hardship grants scholarship grants—that incorporated societies can make and I was particularly helped out by a local group in my own hometown where they managed a couple of scholarship grants for me. So to have that clarified in this is extremely helpful from their point of view as well.But one of the things that this bill does make really clear is around the declaration of conflicts of interest and making sure that they are well recorded. I did note that one example that was used around the use of grants from these societies and being really clear about conflict of interest—the terrible example that I read was around you know one particular small sports club that sold a building worth $350000 and distributed the income from that to their members and then of course were found to be wanting in their decision. It took a court case to actually find that the decisions were not quite kosher and they had to try then and recover that $350000 from the individuals that had received it and sadly two of those individuals had to declare bankruptcy as a consequence of that.So very important that we do have those rules and protections in place not just for the society but perhaps for those recipients of some of those grants. I'm very pleased to hear that the threshold for payments has been lifted to $50000. I was concerned about the asset value because of course they are fluctuating and you know having to account for depreciation perhaps would have been cumbersome. So that is a very good outcome for that and my understanding is that that now sits in regulation outside of the bill so that we don't have to change the legislation in order to adjust those levels because we don't know what $50000 might mean in five years or so. You know the rate of inflation it could be worth the same as an ice cream in five years. So very good to see that has the flexibility outside of legislation to be adjusted. But just in closing I'd like to just have a note to the Government that it's very important that the changes to this regulation are communicated well to the societies across the country. We want to make sure that they are well informed about their new rights and obligations and it's incumbent on us to make sure that the information is clear that it's distributed well because we need them to carry on in the roles that they are doing because it's so valuable to us as a country. Thank you Mr Speaker.