Lees-Galloway Iain: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
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IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I feel as though I need to enter into the debate at this point to bring some balance— 
Hon Nathan Guy 
: Is he a Christ’s College old boy or not? 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: I am a King’s College old boy actually—that is my point. My point is that I need to bring some balance to the debate. I am sure there are a few more private school old boys and girls on the Government benches than there are on this side of the Chamber and I will take it upon myself to bring a little more balance to the debate. We do not all turn out wearing blue. Some of us manage to pop up on the red side of the House as well. 
I am looking at the preamble. Recital (1) states: “The governing body of Christ’s College holds property given to or vested in it for various purposes:”. When I was at King’s College unlike with most boards of trustees in New Zealand there were no elections to the governing body and I think that is still the case now. The board of trustees did not really believe in democracy. In fact the college had a statement on its website saying that we all know that democracy can throw up interesting results and perhaps not the result that is best for the organisation. King’s College eschewed democracy and went for a straight appointment of the board. 
I have no idea whether the governing body of Christ’s College which is referred to in recital (1) of the preamble has the same system. I just tried to do a quick search to see whether the same system is in place at that college and I could not find any information on how the Christ’s College governing board is appointed or elected or on what the system is. If the member in the chair Nicky Wagner has any information to enlighten me on that point then I would sincerely appreciate it if she could get up and discuss it. 
The governing body of Christ’s College holds property given to it for various purposes. Mostly these are trusts and a lot of them are used for scholarships. The nature of the purpose of scholarships can change over time. 
Again I will reflect on my time at King’s College. It was in the mid-1990s and at that point in time— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Oh no! 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: It must make Mr Mallard feel rather ancient given—[ 
Interruption 
] Well private schools were doing quite well in the mid-1990s to be fair given the Government of the day. I do not know whether that makes Mr Mallard feel rather old knowing that I was at high school at the time. 
I was at school in the mid-1990s and at that time rugby union went from being an amateur sport to being a professional sport because of the way that rugby league had been siphoning off so many rugby union players. I know that the Chair is looking at me and hoping that I bring it back into the scope of the debate but this is to do with rugby scholarships to private schools like Christ’s College. All of a sudden there was a proliferation of rugby scholarships as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union sought to contract young rugby players and King’s College—and I am sure Christ’s College also—sought to get some rugby stock into the school that it had not been able to generate itself through its own processes. It looked to other schools to attract those players. Those scholarships suddenly proliferated in the mid-1990s. 
I wonder whether that was a case of a trust like the type of trust we are dealing with in this bill being used for a slightly different purpose. It is possible that that was not the case; that new money came in from another source. But I think the Government Administration Committee was quite interested in situations like that with regard to this bill. 
When one opens up the use of property given to or of trust money vested in the governing body of a school like Christ’s College for alternative purposes then it should not be used in a manner that is not quite becoming to educational purposes. In this case the money was used for the prestige of the school on the sports field rather than for what the original nature of the scholarship was. 
A number of scholarships are put in place for sporting purposes and of course there is absolutely no problem with continuing with that same use. But as recital (2) of the bill points out: “Over time some of those purposes have become redundant uncertain as to application impractical to implement”. It is important that while we widen the possibilities for the governing body to make use of that money we take care—