Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Madam Speaker may I start on this Trusts Bill contribution from New Zealand First given it is my first contribution since you have been appointed as Assistant Speaker by congratulating you on your ascension to that role. You do bring a wealth of experience and I'm sure you'll execute your duties very effectively. The Trusts Bill—right. I absolutely live to speak for bills like these these dry technical bills. I'm pleased to see such an immense legal brain like the Hon Tim Macindoe who just sat down saying that he too has found this a complex area. I know that people like Duncan Webb and Andrew Bayly just live for this stuff but I will endeavour to do my best to represent New Zealand First's position on this because as has been referenced this is a very important aspect of our laws.There are 300000 to 500000 of these trusts. They are an extremely important part of the framework of our legal and financial system. The two Acts that this bill supersedes the Trustee Act of 1956 and the Perpetuities Act of 1964—things have moved on so far since those days. I think I actually referenced in my first reading speech that 1956 was in fact the year the All Blacks beat the Springboks for the first time. I was interested to hear Chris Penk in his committee of the whole House speech reference Peter Jones scoring the winning try for the All Blacks in the fourth test at Eden Park. It was actually picked up by the Jones family when they were looking at my second reading speech or watching it on television so it just shows you how wide ranging and how well viewed these speeches are. So thank you Mr Penk for referencing that. The greater point I was making is that things have moved on so far since the much simpler days of 1956 and it is imperative that we have fit for purpose trust laws given the magnitude and the amount of these trusts and the importance of them to our society. This is actually centuries old—the trusts have been part of societies for hundreds of years. My own family has a trust. I have a trust. It is an important part particularly actually for the agricultural sector and multigenerational businesses. They are really a foundation and fundamental part of making sure that those types of businesses can be handed down to the next generation. I could imagine someone like Ian McKelvie who owns half of the North Island would have a myriad of trusts. I see the Rt Hon David Carter over there. He owns half the South Island so I'm sure that he would have a myriad of trusts.But of course there is a plethora of them. There's community trusts there's licensing trusts and of course down in Southland the licensing trust and the community trust down there are massive parts of that economy. We have unit trusts Māori land trusts and charitable trusts. I note the Halberg Trust and I note the fine performances of our sporting teams in the last week. Of course we're so proud of our Silver Ferns for winning the Netball World Cup and of course the Black Caps for winning the cricket or double-tying in the Cricket World Cup—the Halberg Trust may well recognise them as they may—and the Parliamentary Ferns netball team that performed so well in the UK recently. The cricket team didn't quite avail themselves. It'll be next year for the cricket team. But of course we see Mr Mark Mitchell over there leading our rugby team and he may be able to put that team in a position to win a Halberg Award. Of course there is a trust that oversees that whole charitable event and for the good of the wider community. So what this bill does of course to a varying degree is it helps. It clarifies things because there's a varying degree of legal literacy amongst settlors amongst trustees and amongst beneficiaries and this clarifies a lot of those provisions—the mandatory trustee duties—making them more practical. More flexible powers—and of course we've heard about the codification. It hasn't codified some of these powers; it's allowed some flexibility for interpretation.There are also provisions for better communication between the trustees and the beneficiaries which is often a source of tension further down the track. It gives our court more direction in terms of negligence and issues around that. It clarifies alternative disputes resolution processes so issues do not necessarily have to get dragged through the courts and that is a common-sense measure—that we get some mediation in there—and it does clarify what those alternative dispute resolution processes are and where the parameters for them sit. One of the aims of the bill is to remove unnecessary costs and of course we are a Government that is focused on removing unnecessary costs. The perpetuities provision—we actually got a good history lesson yesterday from the Hon David Parker on perpetuities and how that used to sit with life plus 21 years". Of course that has been adjusted to a blanket maximum of 125 years just to make that a much clearer and a more certain period of time. It's 125 years so Ian McKelvie should be quite comforted that the Government can't come in and nationalise his land for quite some time yet. The Law Commission started working on this back in 2009—as we've heard—right through to 2013 so it has been widely canvassed. I think anyone that goes through this bill and reads it can see—Greg O'Connor: As the member did.MARK PATTERSON: —just how comprehensive the outcome of this process has been. Of course I have. One of the things that I was quite taken with was that it refers to an express trust. I was wondering what an express trust was so I went to clause 6(6) of the bill and "An express trust is a relationship in which a settlor places property on trust to be held by 1 or more trustees for the benefit of beneficiaries or a permitted purpose. As a fiduciary each trustee owes duties and is accountable for how the trust property is managed and distributed". So I think that did clarify what an express trust was. I would like to commend the Minister of Justice the Hon Andrew Little for bringing this to the House. We have all acknowledged—the speakers so far—just how important this bill is how comprehensive the overhaul has been how probably long overdue it has been and I commend Minister Little for having brought this through the House. Also it would be churlish not to acknowledge the Hon Amy Adams for the work that she did when she was the previous Minister when this was instigated. Amy Adams—remember her? The select committee the Justice Committee that oversaw this—it was as it's been referenced very dry technical stuff. A lot of amendments were made through this way so the select committee absolutely earned their money as they worked their way through that bill. I commend the chairman Raymond Huo for shepherding it through. That would have been a challenging and technical process to go through. Of course the officials by whom we are generally very well served will have once again earned their salaries going through the absolute detail that is in this very comprehensive reform of the Trustee Act.New Zealand First has much pleasure in bringing a good piece of law into being in the third reading of this Trusts Bill. I commend it to the House. Thank you."