O'Rourke Denis: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10274. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): It is a great pleasure for New Zealand First to be able to support this private bill with the impressive name of Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill. There has been a long history of trusts and legislation for the purpose of holding property for the Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand. Other speakers have canvassed that history very accurately and it is not necessary for me to do so again. Suffice it to say that originally the focus of the old trust and legislation was on the holding of Church property. That is what it was set up for and that is what it did: simply that nothing much more. It was very narrow in its focus.But obviously over time things change and they have in this case. They change as a result of events that happen over many years and also they change as a result of the changing of attitudes. Some of the events that drive change for issues like this are for example the two world wars which would have changed people’s attitudes and changed the focus of Churches in what they were there to do and what needs of the community they attempted to carry out. I know personally that in Christchurch for example where I live the Canterbury earthquakes of 5 years ago have also been a driver of change as far as many of the churches in Christchurch are concerned because many of them were destroyed or damaged and have been since demolished as a result of the earthquake. Many of the Churches have decided that they will not rebuild all of those churches or will not repair all of them and instead will use the proceeds of insurance and the proceeds of sale of property for other purposes in order to meet their changing needs. So you can see that events do actually act as a driver for change even in respect of issues like this for trusts that hold Church property.The other things as I have said that drive change are attitudes and the needs of the congregations because more and more Churches have acted to meet the social needs and the educational needs and other needs—community needs—of their congregations. So I feel that there has been quite a strong change over many years—less towards investment in property and more towards investment in those other social purposes—and I think that is a very good thing because it reflects the needs of the people who rely on those Churches for those purposes. So it is understandable then that this private bill is coming to us to seek changes that the Churches of Christ in New Zealand have asked us to look at because it is pretty clear that the definition of the powers in the current legislation and the trusts set up under that are far too narrow for current needs and something needs to change.So we need to solve those doubts create more clarity and create wider powers for the trustees in order that they can do the new things that are required of them in this day and age. It is pleasing to see that the Churches of Christ back in 2013 got together and decided what those needs were and what they wanted for an updated piece of legislation and this bill is ultimately the outcome of that process.The bill itself really does only two things. One is to create a clear legal power to enable the transfer of the property from the existing trusts to the new trusts to be established as a result of this legislation. The second thing is to create broader powers for the trustees to do the new things that I have already spoken of earlier. It will allow as a result the Churches to consider a wider mission not only in terms of buildings but in the use of their funds for the other activities of the Churches so that they can do the things that they now wish to do.New Zealand First thoroughly approves of those two new purposes in this bill and we wish the Churches well in using their resources for those wider purposes. The bill and the new trusts will allow the trustees to invest in different ways from those they were empowered to do in the past. We think that is very appropriate.I am also pleased to see that the Government Administration Committee has done a good job in listening to the two submissions it had and reviewing the fine detail of the bill and reporting that back to the House as it has done. So New Zealand First is very happy with the detail of the legislation and its purposes and we will therefore be very pleased indeed to vote in favour of the bill.