Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak on the first reading of this bill the Trusts Bill and I'd like to join with the Minister of Justice on this side of the House in adding my support for this bill. This is a very welcome piece of legislation. We are updating a piece of legislation the Trustee Act that's what over 60 years old and also the Perpetuities Act which is about 50-odd years old as well. So it's long overdue and I'm sure that all the legal practitioners out there—trust lawyers especially—will be paying very close attention to the passage of this legislation because as the Minister outlined at the outset trusts are quite pervasive across New Zealand society across property ownership. Family trusts commercial contexts—they are very common in administering Māori assets as well through our own unique legislative provisions under for instance Te Ture Whenua Maori Act and also through the establishment of Treaty settlement entities which are all trusts. So this is an important piece of legislation.I'd like to acknowledge the member who has just resumed his seat Christopher Finlayson as well for saying at the outset that this is about making trusts law easier to understand and simplifying it and in the same breath upon saying that actually proceeding to make it real confusing by raising a whole lot of issues that no doubt will be considered by the select committee. And they are serious issues.Hon Christopher Finlayson: Where's the problem with that?RINO TIRIKATENE: I'm not—oh nothing wrong with that and I'm not the one to be delving into the interplay between various terms within the provisions of the bill. I'm looking forward to the consideration that the select committee will give and to closer examination of those terms.But I think we must go back to I guess the Law Commission. Now that's a very august learned organisation that prepared a report. It was several years in the making and so I think we can stand with confidence in this House that this bill has been very well thought through. It has been backed up by some of the—probably the most experienced legal minds that we have in the Law Commission. They have given it very close examination and this is the bill that we've ended up with.Granted there are some issues that may not be picked up under this bill particularly specialist trusts in a commercial context—superannuation trusts or trusts of that nature—but I think this really cuts to the core as stated in the definition of express trusts. That's really just the basic elements of a trust: a set law trustees beneficiaries—those plus the various variations that can be created around those are what this bill is all about. It's really cutting to the heart of the day-to-day running of everyday trusts that operate across the country. It's about making the rules a lot more accessible and easy to understand by having them all nicely contained in a nice piece of legislation rather than having to go through a whole bunch of text books or running to case law and checking advice through legal advisers to understand what the position is.I think for anyone who is—particularly if you're holding the position of a trustee having clarity around the role that a person plays by being a trustee is very important and this bill goes a long way to setting out those obligations in a very clear fashion therefore it's going to be much easier to understand. I'm sure the Law Society and practitioners will be giving seminars up and down the country on this piece of legislation because it is such a major piece of legislation as it concerns trust law.One particular aspect I like—just on a quick cursory glance at the legislation—is that there are certain provisions that can be modified by the parties to the trust. So it's analogous to a company's constitution. By drafting a trust deed there are a whole bunch of—and I'm sure it will be happening right now; there will be boilerplate trust deeds being drawn up as we speak in anticipation of the passage of this bill which will I guess recognise the ability for parties to tailor the wishes of the parties to the trust through this piece of legislation.Just on a final point I do look forward to the submissions that are made on this piece of legislation because it is so far reaching and wide ranging and covers so many different contexts. In particular I'd like to encourage those Māori land trusts entities that are created under Te Ture Whenua Maori Act and also settlement entities to make submissions on this piece of legislation because this impacts on all of their operations as well.I guess for a very quick glance at all of the Treaty settlements that have been enacted in this House one just needs to look to schedule 5 and it's there plain to see: all of the various Treaty settlements that have been enacted and that are amended by this bill. Sure it's just a technical changing of the rule of perpetuity but it's interesting to see the whole scope and just the number of Treaty settlements that have been enacted. So I would invite and encourage all of those iwi members that are affected by this bill whānau trusts ahu whenua or trusts that are created under Māori land legislation to study the bill and to make submissions on this bill. Likewise I'm sure we will receive a lot of submissions analysing those finer legal points that the Hon Chris Finlayson touched on in his contribution.So to conclude this is a welcome piece of legislation. It's going to have far-reaching consequences. It will touch on so many different basic operational aspects of trusts which are prevalent right across New Zealand society. I commend the Minister and likewise all others that have been involved in its development stage. I commend it to the House.