Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Amendment Bill

I really jumped out of my box there just with a bit too much vim and vigour, but that’s the nature of this debate, I think. I do want to come to this section inserted by clause 4A, on the transitional, savings, and related provisions. This is an issue that’s been touched on in a couple of contributions so far, but I want to just develop that a little bit further, and I will come to a question for the member in the chair, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, here again, because I don’t think we’ve quite got to the bottom of this. This is that really important issue about the transitional wording in terms of when this bill comes into effect. I just don’t think we’ve quite, as a committee, got to the point where we have absolute clarity about why we’ve landed where we’ve landed in terms of this section.

So if we go to Schedule 1AA, and I’ll just pull that out here, what we find—sorry, Madam Chair, I’ve just got my papers a little bit out of order here—if we come back to the report of the Governance and Administration Committee is that we’ve still got quite an unusual situation going on here in terms of when this bill actually comes into effect. We’ve had a number of questions here. We haven’t quite had them answered in terms of why we’ve landed where we have with that bill. There’s a particular reference—again, I’m sorry, Madam Chair, I’m just trying to find the wordings here—to five months. When we actually go to the wording that’s in 1AA—yeah, here we go. In Schedule 1AA, Part 1, and I’ll just go to it—this is in Part 1, clause 2(2), and it goes, “This Act, as amended by section 6 of the 2019 Amendment Act, applies to the following financial years of the Funding Board: (a) financial years beginning after the commencement date of the 2019 Amendment Act;”—OK—“(b) the financial year beginning—(i) on that commencement date; or (ii) before, and ending on or after, that commencement date; and (c) any financial year ending on, or in the 5-month period before, that commencement date.”

I’m really not at all clear why it is and what the advice is that’s landed on five months there, and I think this goes to some of the broader issues that have been canvassed by members on this side of the Chamber just about some of the lack of clarity in terms of when entities are actually going to be reporting under the terms of this bill. I’ve touched on the point before that we’ve got the slightly unusual situation in which it can kick in during a financial year and not between the end of one and the start of the other, which I would’ve thought was a more normal and rational and cleaner way of doing it. Then we’ve got the second point about a five-month period before the commencement date kicking in—so just clarity on that: why that is, where the advice about five months has come from, and, again, coming back to that core point about why we seem to have a slightly more convoluted set of commencement arrangements here than would be normal in a bill like this, which is dealing with important affairs relating to the reporting standards of entities like these ones.

I just make this point again that in terms of the reporting standards that we’re applying here through this bill, we’re talking about entities that deal with a lot of money that’s supplied by the public, and we need to make sure that it’s done well. So if the member could address those, I’d be very grateful. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I actually make another contribution, just to expand on the point that I ended on in my previous contribution. I didn’t quite get to expand on that, and that is actually just going to new Schedule 1AA in clause 7. As I mentioned previously, when I spoke a little bit about the need for a little bit more clarity around the commencement date, I ended on the point that the Governance and Administration Committee recommended adding clause 4A, which would then insert new section 4A, setting out the transitional provisions in Schedule 1AA.

So if I were to then go to clause 4A of the bill, which really just is a marker to send us to Schedule 1AA, that bit then sends us—and this is, I guess, the main question that I’d like to ask the member in the chair, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, around Schedule 1AA, clause 2(1). That then sets out the fact that—so it’s the application of the financial reporting amendment, so really the crux of the change that this bill makes. It says—and I quote, because it’s quite technical; clause 2(1) says—“This Act, as amended by section 5 of the 2019 Amendment Act, applies to the following financial years of a specified amenity:”. This is kind of the clarity I was speaking about in my previous call. Clause 2(1)(a) says, “financial years beginning after the commencement date of the 2019 Amendment Act;”. So that bit to me is quite clear. As the member pointed out previously, once this bill comes into force, the change comes into effect after that. Now, clause 2(1)(b) says, “the financial year beginning—(i) on that commencement date; or (ii) before, and ending on or after, that commencement date;”—and I’m a little bit lost by this point already—and paragraph (c) says, “any financial year ending on, or in the three-month period before, that commencement date.” So I’d like a little bit of clarity as to why that three-month period specifically. So that’s the first part of my question.

The second part of my question—and I won’t read the whole of clause 2(2), because most of it is similar. It, basically, says this Act, as amended by section 6 of the 2019 Act, applies to the following financial years of the funding board. So to me then the difference is that subclause (1) is changes that apply to the specified amenities—so the nine different amenities that were stated in the bill—but subclause (2) applies to the funding board specifically. Now, most of those paragraphs are the same, except (c), which says, “any financial year ending on, or in the 5-month period before, that commencement date.”

So, really, I’d like a little bit of clarity, both around the fact that there is a three-month period before the commencement date and that applies to the specified amenity, and then a five-month period that applies to the funding. So why those specific figures, but also why a difference between the two? To my mind, that just complicates matters more to the commencement, which, frankly, I find quite confusing in this particular bill. So, again, I’d like a little bit of clarity as to why all those different parts of Schedule 1AA, the difference between the three-month period and the five-month period, and some advice, I guess, that was sought that has led to these different dates, I suppose, or time periods. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. These changes are to section 39 and section 40 of the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008. Obviously, these amenities have to report, because this Act provides for funding for these amenities. So in new Schedule 1AA, inserted by clause 7 of the bill, clause 2(1) is for the amenities. It clarifies—it makes it very clear—what these transitional provisions will look for, these amenities. But then, because that board is also required to prepare their financial statement, the next clause actually specifies transitional provisions for the board, because the board has to prepare their financial statement as well, which is in section 40. So that one applies to section 40. That applies only to the board, not to the specified amenities. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Clause 4A agreed to.

Clause 5 Section 39 amended (Specified amenity does annual report)