Mitchell Mark: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9317. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): It is a pleasure to take a call on this the second reading of the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill. I firstly would like to acknowledge the committee that has been working on this bill. I would like to acknowledge the chair of the committee the Hon Ruth Dyson—Chris Bishop: A very hard-working chair.MARK MITCHELL: —a very hard-working chair of the Government Administration Committee; our deputy chair Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie—Chris Bishop: Even more hard-working.MARK MITCHELL: —that is right—my colleague Brett Hudson Kris Faafoi from Labour and also Mojo Mathers a Green Party member who sits on the Government Administration Committee. They worked very hard on this bill.I just want to acknowledge the Hon Nick Smith for bringing this bill to the House because it does show what a good electorate MP when an issue or problem is brought to him or her can do in advancing a bill as a private bill. This bill is in his name. He did identify that there were some loopholes that had to be closed. He has highlighted today just how important this is for the churches that it affects. So I want to acknowledge the Hon Nick Smith for bringing this bill to the House.I think it is important that I just go over it again and highlight once more the purpose of the bill. The purpose of this bill is to transfer all of the existing property rights powers and obligations of the Associated Churches of Christ Church Extension and Property Trust Board to the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board. The bill also dissolves the Associated Churches of Christ Church Extension and Property Trust Board and removes it from the register of charitable trust boards under the Charitable Trusts Act of 1957. It repeals the Associated Churches of Christ Church Property Act 1929.We have a list here of the Churches that are affected. I think in my speech in the first reading I highlighted and noted that there were two Churches here that I know fairly well as a young bloke growing up on the North Shore. There is the Mairangi Bay Community Church on the North Shore and also the Wellsford Church of Christ in Northland which is also an area that I know very well.The key messages in relation to this bill are that the bill is about allowing the new Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board to hold properties similar to the soon to be dissolved trust. As I highlighted before when I was referring to the Hon Nick Smith there was a gap in the legislation and a private bill was required to enable the transfer of the property the rights the powers and the obligations from the existing board to the new board. This bill will enable this and fix this historical problem.The previous speaker Adrian Rurawhe referred to the select committee process. I just want to acknowledge him and say that it was a very thorough and robust select committee process. There were two submissions received on the bill. There was a lot of discussion in the committee about these submissions. As the previous speaker alluded to there was discussion around a sunset clause—the advice that was given to the committee—and after a lot of discussion it was decided not to add a sunset clause. I think that was the right decision to make.I would like to talk a little bit about the history of the bill. Christian Churches New Zealand is an association of more than 30 congregations throughout New Zealand—and literally throughout New Zealand—from the far north to the far south. The congregations are autonomous but they act together through their regular national conferences. I like the point that the Hon Nick Smith made about the changes in this bill that will allow a congregation that always comes to pray together worship together and work together to now be able to—this is going to allow a much more inclusive framework for them to be able to—carry that right through all the activities of the Church.Initially property was in the names of the elders of the congregations. There were obvious practical issues with that arrangement and in the 1920s a conference decided to have a legal entity that could own their own properties. In April 1924 in Dunedin at a convened conference of delegates from the Churches a board of trustees of certain members of the Churches was set up with the intent that the board should hold as trustees the lands of those Churches that wished to vest the land and their properties in the board and also all real and personal property for church extension purposes. The board was then incorporated under the Religious Charitable and Educational Trusts Act 1908 and was known as the Church Extension and Property Trust Board of Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand.I think just very quickly obviously as a Parliament we always work very hard to pass new legislation but actually a big part of our role is to look at old legislation. Sometimes we have legislation that is 30 40 or 50 years old that is no longer fit for purpose. It is actually really important that we are able to identify that through lots of different processes and actually make the changes that are required.As there were doubts as to the board’s ability to legally hold the properties vested in it a private Act of Parliament was enacted the Associated Churches of Christ Church Property Act which was implemented in 1929. That legislation contained a provision defining the trusts upon which the board was to hold real and personal property vested in it. That was section 9 of that Act. Over the years a number of Churches of Christ properties have been sold and the proceeds of sale paid to the board. Further various bequests and gifts have been made to the board for the purposes of the work that the Churches undertake. The wording of the present legislation creates doubts as to how the funds held by the board might be applied for the furtherance of the work of the Churches. There is a strong presumption from the legislation that the funds received are on trust for the purposes of real estate only.A conference of the Churches in 2013 decided a new trust should be formed and the existing real and personal property held by the board be transferred to the new trust board. The new trust board has been formed as the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board and is registered under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. A transfer like this requires a private Act of Parliament. However as the terms of the existing legislation did not include the power to transfer the assets to a new trust board the new trust board has interim trustees and a local solicitor. It is intended that on the passing of this legislation that the Churches will elect new trustees.So this is where this enabling piece of legislation became very important. It is going to allow those changes to take place between the old board and the newly formed board. I would just like to finally acknowledge the Hon Nick Smith again for bringing this piece of legislation to the House. Thank you.