Mallard Trevor; Webb DuncanGIRL GUIDES ASSOCIATION (NEW ZEALAND BRANCH) INCORPORATION AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingSPEAKER: The honourary Dr—no just ordinary Dr Duncan Webb. Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Tēnā koe for that Mr Speaker. I move That the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill. I just note that it is apposite that we are looking at this bill about the Girl Guides Association on the week of International Women's Day—a nice touch; not what I'd planned. It's also interesting that given that I was dishonourably discharged from the Cubs down at South Brighton I'm not sure I'm the best person to marshal the bill through the House. But as I said repeatedly to our akela I will do my best. The purpose of this bill is to clarify and confirm the powers of the Girl Guides Association of New Zealand Inc. so that it can deal with its assets freely and this includes the disposition of property which has been gifted to it on trust. There's an argument that under the 1942 Act some dispositions may be inconsistent with the requirements of section 6 of that Act but this bill will put it beyond doubt that the association can sell or otherwise dispose of its property provided it's consistent with the objects of the association. The objects of the association are relatively lengthy. They're set out in the association's constitution but they do include: To advance education by the special training and instruction of girls of New Zealand in the principles of discipline loyalty good citizenship and service for others and by the development of their character" and those certainly are good objects. But a little bit of history and I think it's important here that we do give this some historical background particularly where we talk about a particular piece of land that is concerning here. The girl guides and their forerunner the Peace Scouts for girls already had a presence in New Zealand in 1908. This was due to the work of Lieutenant Colonel David Cossgrove who started the scouting movement in New Zealand. [Interruption] Yes Mr McAnulty but I don't believe related to any former members of this House. Lieutenant Cossgrove served in the Boer War with Baden-Powell. He was a headmaster at Tuahiwi which is just outside Christchurch and he brought the Scout movement to New Zealand. He had four daughters and the youngest was Muriel. They were living of course in a country which had already won the vote for women 15 years earlier and Muriel asked for a girls' equivalent to Scouts. So it was 1908 a year before girls in Britain made the same request that Cossgrove organised the Peace Scouts for girls and I did smile when I saw that the junior branch was called the fairy scouts. Names have been changed. In keeping with the progressive nation that this country is that was two years before the formation of the girl guides in Britain in 1910 and the British organisation was formally incorporated by royal charter—which is a little unusual—in 1922. So in 1928 the Peace Scouts became Girlguiding and the New Zealand association joined the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts—probably the first ever WAGGGS group—as a founding member. I do want to recognise that at about this time there were some groups that were modelled on the Girl Guides Association in the UK as well including in Auckland which was led by a woman by the name of Wilson—I think it was Lucinda and Bertha Wilson. At that time though the Peace Scouts was an unincorporated association. It held various assets and properties leading to some legal complications which are not dissimilar to another organisation I'm familiar with. In light of this its status as a body corporate was created by the passing of the Act we're now concerned with the Girl Guides Association (New Zealand Branch) Incorporation Act. Just looking at what they did back in sort of the 1920s 1930s and 1940s to become a second-class Scout a girl or young woman had to demonstrate skills in knotting signalling compass work lifesaving and first aid and she had to trek bike ride a horse or row a boat for five miles and produce reports on where she had been and what she'd seen. As I've said I think things in girl guiding have changed. The girl guides' membership peaked in 1965 when there were 33000 members. In 2019 there were about 10500 girls aged five to 17 in guiding. So that leads us to where we are today. Some of the association's long-held properties have become uneconomic to hold and the association's finances have become whilst not parlous a little strained. So clause 4 of the bill replaces section 4 of the principal Act to clarify that the association has the power to dispose of property of all kinds including kinds that have been held on trust. Clause 4(4) of the bill makes it clear that the power to sell or otherwise dispose of property set out in clause 4 will override any limitation set out elsewhere in the Act including section 6 where it states that "Despite section 6 and any statutory trust that it recognises this section applies even if the trust terms would not without this section permit the disposition of property." It's appropriate here to note that the reason that the bill is now before the House is because the association holds property in Waitakere Auckland known as Otimai and it intends to dispose of that property. That property was gifted by a trust deed to the association's predecessor by the Wilson family—in fact by Lucinda and Bertha Wilson—way back in 1929. I think it was Lucinda in fact who was very instrumental in getting girl guiding off the ground back in the 1920s. I also want to recognise that the Wilson family do have existing family members. Bill Wilson is one of them—formerly of Wilson and Horton—who has taken an interest in what's going on with this property. So that was gifted by trust and the objective of the trust was that the property be held upon trust to permit the same to be appropriated used and enjoyed in perpetuity under the name Otimai as a training home for girl guides and so on. Now that leads us to the problem that the words "in perpetuity" suggest that it's not to be disposed of. The Girl Guides Association's recent attempt to deal with Otimai exposed some internal inconsistencies in the Act and here we are cleaning that up for them. I do want to acknowledge that the original proposals to sell the land did meet with some opposition and dissent but this process is an absolutely transparent one. The bill will be going to select committee for a full submission process and anyone who wants to be heard—absolutely I'm confident given the excellent select committee and chairmanship of that select committee that it will be properly considered and heard. So various options have been explored for dealing with Otimai but the fact of the matter is that it's a loss-making enterprise and it's not feasible for the girl guides in their view to hold on to that property. So because it's not financially viable it's in the interests of the Girl Guides Association of New Zealand and its members that it's sold and the proceeds are reinvested back into the association. So the bill will in essence enable the association to make decisions which are in the best interests of the girls and young women that it serves. Whilst this generous gift of the Wilson family is recognised it was given over 90 years ago and the way the world operates the activities that are engaged in and the circumstances of the Girl Guides Association have changed. I will note that I was looking for some girl guide biscuits to table but it appears that they're much harder to come by. I was going say that I was going to try and table them even though they're available on the internet which I'm told is in breach of Standing Orders but I was going to give it a go by leave. But anyway the bill does provide well-needed clarity and a degree of liberty for the association to deal with its assets as it sees appropriate so that it's not open to criticism or objection in dealing with land. This is the only way this can be dealt with because of the nature of the trust and the nature of the legislation by which the Girl Guides Association was incorporated so it won't be constrained by the terms of this very old trust deed or other trust deeds in fact and it can deal in property in an appropriate way. It won't be constrained to hold it in a manner which no longer serves a purpose for this modern organisation. So I'm hopeful that members here will support this bill through to select committee where it can receive some very careful consideration and I commend the bill to the House."