Independent Auditor’s Report To the readers of The Human Rights Commission’s financial statements and performance information for the year ended 30 June 2016 The Auditor-General is the auditor of the Human Rights Commission. The Auditor-General has appointed me, J.R Smaill, using the staff and resources of Audit New Zealand, to carry out the audit of the financial statements and the performance information, including the performance information for an appropriation, of the Human Rights Commission on her behalf. Opinion on the financial statements and the performance information We have audited: • the financial statements of the Human Rights Commission on pages 46 to 64, that comprise the statement of financial position as at 30 June 2016, the statement of comprehensive revenue and expense, statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flows for the year ended on that date and the notes to the financial statements that include accounting policies and other explanatory information; and • the performance information of the Human Rights Commission on pages 17 to 28 and 38 to 44. In our opinion: • the financial statements of the Human Rights Commission: ˚˚ present fairly, in all material respects: .. its financial position as at 30 June 2016; and .. its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended; and ˚˚ comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand and have been prepared in accordance with Public Benefit Entity Standards Reduced Disclosure Regime. • the performance information: ˚˚ presents fairly, in all material respects, the Human Rights Commission’s performance for the year ended 30 June 2016, including: .. for each class of reportable outputs: .. its standards of performance achieved as compared with forecasts included in the statement of performance expectations for the financial year; .. its actual revenue and output expenses as compared with the forecasts included in the statement of performance expectations for the financial year; .. what has been achieved with the appropriation; and .. the actual expenses or capital expenditure incurred compared with the appropriated or forecast expenses or capital expenditure. ˚˚ complies with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand. Our audit was completed on 20 October 2016. This is the date at which our opinion is expressed. The basis of our opinion is explained below. In addition, we outline the responsibilities of the Commissioners and our responsibilities, and explain our independence. Annual Report 2016 65