Pallett Sarah; O'Connor GregSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise with pleasure this evening to take a call on the McLean Institute (Trust Variation) Bill. We've heard from many members this evening a little bit about the McLean family history and I'm going to talk a little tiny bit about that myself because I find people's motivation really interesting. I think when we're looking at the reasons why people do things and particularly when we're looking at—we've heard about the Cawthron Institute and about the extraordinary bequest that gave rise to that institution and the amazing amount of good that it's done. A very similar sort of situation here where Allan McLean bequeathed what would now be an absolutely colossal amount of money—I think we're looking at $200 million to $300 million in equivalent funds—with some exceptionally good intentions. The wording of course as we've heard is not really quite meeting today's brief. But looking back at Allan McLean we've heard that he was born in the islands of the Inner Hebrides on the island of Coll which is actually where a branch of my family comes from so that's quite interesting. His father was a fisherman and he drowned when Allan was at the very impressionable age of 14. I know that the Hebrides are absolutely beautiful. However you can just imagine a hundred and umpteen or so years ago they might have been beautiful but they'd be an extraordinarily difficult place for a solo mother to raise eight children or the five or six—depending on which source you read—that survived because of course infant mortality wasn't what it is today. Fortunately we've managed to drastically improve those statistics so we don't have an expectation of only five of our eight children surviving.But you can imagine that Allan McLean was probably an extremely as I said impressionable 14-year-old. Having that experience of a mother who couldn't make a living on the land that she inherited being left in penury after multiple crop failures and emigrating to Australia with her remaining children you can imagine that that probably had a really big impression on him. So the McLean Institute arose out of this bequest—for reasons that we've probably explored in detail—because Mr McLean wished to provide financial assistance to women and children who were in destitute circumstances by creating a public institution for their benefit.But the language used at the time has had the inadvertent effect of limiting potential beneficiaries of the institute's support. We've heard members refer to gentlewomen" or "women of refinement or education in [reduced or] straitened circumstances along with their children." The board of the institute has observed that it's become almost impossible to give effect to the original charitable purpose over time meaning it's now rare for somebody to qualify for that support. I think from memory from my research there are four people who are currently benefiting from this trust but there won't be any further beneficiaries until this bill passes through Parliament—assuming it does.The institute's key objectives in amending the trust are—as we have potentially heard but just to just to clarify—to confirm that any woman or child can be assisted by the trust and to remove any notion or perception of exclusivity and to broaden the purpose of the trust which for over 100 years has been primarily the provision of housing and full-time care in an institution to instead set a number of charitable purposes intended to empower and support women and children.The updated purposes are set out in clause 5 of the amended deed and examples include providing or facilitating emergency housing for women or children providing support for women experiencing mental health issues addiction disability trauma violence homelessness poverty or dislocation and funding programmes that empower women and that work to counter violence and abuse against women. The trustees of the institute remain committed to the original intentions of Mr McLean and I think that everybody in the House would agree that they are honourable and worthy intentions.Motion agreed to.Bill read a first time.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is That the McLean Institute (Trust Variation) Bill be considered by the Social Services and Community Committee.Motion agreed to.Bill referred to the Social Services and Community Committee."