Hudson Brett: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9815. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill. In Part 1 as my colleague has mentioned under clause 3 “Interpretation” we see here that a core part if you will of this bill is the definition of “property”. What we are doing here is we are simply defining it as meaning every type of property and that will include as set out in 3(b)(i) “every type of estate and interest in property; and … (ii) money; and (iii) all land registered in the name of the old board under the Land Transfer Act 1952:”. That really comes to the heart of why we are having this legislation.Chris Bishop: Why is that?BRETT HUDSON: Well the challenge that we now are faced with in a world that is so many decades after the initial trust and powers were put in place is that originally the value and assets of the trust were all in property and it was thought that was the only real value of those assets that could be used—that it was all about providing property and facilities for the works the Christian Churches New Zealand does. The trust now finds itself some many decades later having to face challenges in today’s world where if it has got some property—some building or some facilities somewhere—that may be all well and good in that they have a monetary value but if it cannot actually realise that monetary value that monetary asset in some way it can find itself constrained from actually delivering the services to the constituents that the trust actually existed for in the first place. So with this interpretation we will make it clear that property for the purposes of this legislation is any form of property in the name of the trust. By doing so—as the other provisions which we will get to will permit—it will mean that no longer will property have to be physical real estate or buildings and therefore the trust will have the power to change one asset to another form of asset.For instance the trust could sell property and gain a cash asset. As we know on this side of the Chamber that is a very powerful ability. This Government in its forward-thinking views took the same approach into the last election through the mixed-ownership model and said that it is better for New Zealand in some instances to convert a physical property asset into a cash asset and then use that cash for things that are more meaningful for New Zealanders today and into the future through the Future Investment Fund. It is one that is seeing schools built hospitals built and ultra-fast broadband and the Rural Broadband Initiative.What we saw was that if you simply limited property to physical property and plant and machinery in the case of those particular mixed-ownership models then you constrain choices—you can constrain the services you provide and the good you can do. By taking such a broad definition of “property” what we are permitting and enabling in this legislation is that the new trust will be in a position to make decisions today and into the future that will permit it to deliver the best-possible outcomes and services to its constituents. We are actually empowering a new trust to be relevant today and into the future.Along with this in clause 4 we are also making it clear to help give effect to this that the purpose of this enabling legislation is to “transfer all of the existing property interests powers and obligations of the old board;” dissolve that board and repeal the old property Act. What we are basically saying is that anything that was held by that trust will now come under the auspices and authority and power of the new trust along with any associated obligations and we will dissolve the old legislation.One point I would make because I think it is relevant to the idea of repealing the old Act and indeed of dissolving the old board is that the Government Administration Committee questioned the officials as we went through the consideration of this bill. We asked: if we have come to a point where old legislation is no longer valid how do we ensure that the new legislation doesn’t suffer the same fate at some point in the future? Why do we not just use general law general trust law to manage this new trust and incorporate it in? Why do we not have a sunset clause so that this particular empowering bill would just cease after a period of time and the new trust the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board would just be completely under the auspices of the Charitable Trusts Act? Unfortunately we did not really get the answers we were seeking but I think it was a very valid question for the committee to ask. It shows that we are taking a forward look—