Williams Poto: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9318. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Firstly I have to say that it is a pity that the Hon Ruth Dyson is not here to hear the accolades—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order!POTO WILLIAMS: I apologise.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): The member cannot refer to the absence of a member.POTO WILLIAMS: Thank you for your guidance Mr Assistant Speaker. I do also acknowledge Ruth Dyson as chair of the Government Administration Committee and the work that she has done to ensure that this bill was expedited to the House and that the mechanisms are in place in order for Christian Churches New Zealand to be able to effect what needs to happen for the board to continue with the work.Churches and religious organisations have a strong link to the history and the development of this country as a nation. In fact missionaries were here preaching the gospel to local people a long time before the establishment of many of the institutions that we now hold and they were instrumental I suggest in ensuring that relationships were forged between local people and those who came later and were also instrumental in providing pathways and opportunities for those early leaders who worked on the development of what then became the Treaty of Waitangi and the establishment of this country.It is important to note that Christian Churches New Zealand was here as early as 1844. It was here almost at the very beginning of this nationhood and it has developed over time starting in Nelson in 1844 and then over time developing more congregations first after Nelson in Auckland and Dunedin and today having 30 congregations in the name of Christian Churches New Zealand. Each of the congregations act autonomously and they have their own programmes of work and their own ways of working with their congregations but collectively through their national conference they have set up an organisation to drive the work that is needed at a national level particularly around the acquisition and the use of property the management of bequests and the like.It is through these national conferences that the structure of Christian Churches New Zealand was developed and formed. The establishment of the board happened on 18 April 1924 in Dunedin. They established the board of trustees and the intention of the trustees was that the lands that the Churches held could be used for church extension purposes at the time. So the real and personal property that was held by the Church was used for church extension purposes.Also what happened at that time was that an Act was enacted that meant the Church could then be established under the Associated Churches of Christ Church Property Act 1929. But at the time there were some doubts about the ability to legally hold property under that Act. Section 9 of that particular Act dealt with what was meant by holding real and personal property.So why are we now with this legislation? The wording of the present legislation creates some doubts about how the funds that are held by the board may be applied for the furtherance of the work of the Churches and there is a strong presumption from the legislation that the funds received are on trust for the purposes of real estate only. We all know that the work of Churches around the country and this organisation in particular is around supporting not just the development of property and lands but also supporting the programmes to provide social good into their communities and their congregations. That will be working with children working with mothers working with people who may have concerns around substance or alcohol abuse—that type of thing.So it was thought that the legislation does not provide enough ability for the Church to legally act in that way and to use the property in that way. That is why in September 2013 a resolution was made to form a new trust. The trust would then use the existing real and personal property and it would then be able to be transferred to the new trust. The trust was then registered under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 which meant that it can legally establish structure that did not require the purposes of the Act. What happened then was an interim board was established to be held in place until the new trustees could be elected so that at the passage of that particular legislation it would then be possible to have new trustees elected.The terms of the new trust under the 1929 Act include the use of funds which is the most important difference between the old structure and the new structure. It actually provides the opportunity for the trust to then determine what use it can make of the funds the property and all those other donations bequests and gifts that come to the Church.There were two submissions that were made to the select committee and I acknowledge the Church’s submission made to the select committee. There was one that was completely in support of the bill as it stands and there was another submission that suggested there should be a sunset clause in place. The sunset clause was fully considered by the select committee but it was considered that if that were to stay in place because of the length of time that the Churches had been established there may be future bequests for example that would be in the name of the previous establishment and would therefore not be able to be used by the new trust in the way that it needed. The select committee fully considered the sunset clause and decided that actually in relation to the intent of the Act and the bill and what the Churches need to do it would not be in the best interests to have the sunset clause.Just in conclusion this bill will provide to Christian Churches New Zealand the ability to do what it needs to do for its congregations with the property that it holds. We commend the bill to the House. Thank you.