Human Rights Commission Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2014 1. Statement of accounting policies Functional and presentation currency Reporting entity The financial statements are presented in New Zealand dollars and all values are rounded to the nearest thousand dollars ($000). The functional currency of the Commission is New Zealand dollars. The Human Rights Commission (the Commission) was established by the Human Rights Commission Act 1977 and continues under the Human Rights Act 1993. The Commission is a Crown entity as defined by the Crown Entities Act 2004 and is domiciled in New Zealand. The Commission’s ultimate parent is the New Zealand Crown. The primary objective of the Commission is to provide services to the public rather than making a financial return. Accordingly, the Commission has designated itself as a public benefit entity for the purposes of New Zealand equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZ IFRS). These financial statements of the Commission are for the year ended 30 June 2014 and were approved by the Board of the Commission on 13 October 2014. Basis of preparation Statement of compliance The financial statements of the Commission have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Crown Entities Act 2004, which includes the requirement to comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand (NZ GAAP). These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with NZ GAAP and comply with NZ IFRS as appropriate for public benefit entities. Measurement base The financial statements have been prepared on an historical cost basis, except for assets and liabilities that have been valued at fair value as identified in their respective accounting policies. 76 72 Changes in accounting policies There have been no changes in accounting policies during the financial year. Standards, amendments and interpretations issued that are not yet effective and have not been early adopted The Minister of Commerce has approved a new Accounting Standards Framework (incorporating a Tier Strategy) developed by the External Reporting Board (XRB). Under this Accounting Standards Framework the Commission is classified as a Tier 2 reporting entity and will be eligible to apply the reduced disclosure regime of the public sector Public Benefit Entity Accounting Standards (PAS). The effective date for the new standards for public sector entities is reporting periods beginning on or after 1 July 2014. This means the Commission expects to transition to the new standards in preparing its 30 June 2015 financial statements. The Commission does not expect any material changes to reporting requirements or accounting policies. Due to the change in the Accounting Standards Framework for public benefit entities it is expected that all new NZ IFRS and amendments to existing NZ IFRS will not be applicable to public benefit entities. Therefore, the XRB has effectively frozen the financial reporting requirements for public benefit entities up until the new Accounting Standards Framework is effective. Accordingly, no disclosure has been made about new or amended NZ IFRS that exclude public benefit entities from their scope. Human Rights Commission