What I’m Reading – Jeff Galt
In this week’s recommendation, the auditing profession is under the spotlight, revealing a need for directors to dig into the numbers.
Changes to the law for incorporated societies and their governance are here. Well... almost.
The Incorporated Societies Act 2022 was recently passed by Parliament and received Royal Assent on 5 April 2022. This significant development follows a long gestation period, with the first Law Commission issues papers published in mid-2011.
It’s been a long time coming, but not as long as the previous Incorporated Societies Act 1908 was in place.
The new law is strongly focused on improving incorporated society governance, retaining the best of the tried and tested 1908 Act and codifying the case law into the Act.
The primary aspects of the new law are:
These new requirements can extend to trusts incorporated as boards under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 and a range of entities incorporated under other statutes, for example Girl Guides and the Scout Association of New Zealand.
As a result of the time taken to pass this legislation, existing incorporated societies may have lost track of the changes that are coming and the actions that boards / committees need to understand and take.
The good news is that key provisions of the new legislation won’t come into force for 18 months, with implementation beyond that date.
To help that process and support incorporated society governance, we will be ensuring that more material and guidance is available over this transition period.