21 Notes to the financial statements 1  Statement of accounting policies for the year ended 30 June 2008 Reporting entity The Law Commission is an independent Crown entity for legislative purposes, established by the Law Commission Act 1985. The Law Commission is domiciled in New Zealand and as such its ultimate parent is the New Zealand Crown. The Law Commission’s primary objective is to review areas of the law that need updating, reforming or developing and to make recommendations to the New Zealand Parliament. The Law Commission is accordingly a public benefit entity for the purposes of New Zealand Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (“NZ IFRS”). The financial statements are for the year ended 30 June 2008 and were approved by the Commissioners on 31 October 2008. Basis of preparation Statement of compliance These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Law Commission Act 1985 and the Crown Entities Act 2004 which includes the requirement to comply with New Zealand generally accepted accounting practice (“NZ GAAP”). They comply with NZ IFRS and other applicable Financial Reporting Standards, as appropriate for public benefit entities. First year of preparation under NZ IFRS This is the first set of financial statements prepared using NZ IFRS and comparatives for the year ended 30 June 2007 have been restated to NZ IFRS accordingly. Reconciliations of equity and net surplus/ (deficit) for the year ended June 2007 under NZ IFRS to the balances reported in the June 2007 financial statements are detailed in note 25. The accounting policies set out below have been applied consistently to all periods presented in these financial statements and in preparing an opening NZ IFRS statement of financial position as at 1 July 2006 for the purpose of the transition to NZ IFRS.