Tremain Chris: Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill — First Reading 
Tremain Chris: Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:2977] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I rise tonight to take a call on the Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill and to support Brendon Burns in taking his first bill to the House. I congratulate him on doing that. It is interesting to have a look at the Methodist Church’s trust bill and the Methodist Church. The church has had a long history in this country. It was one of the first churches to land in New Zealand to form relationships with tangata whenua to build strong relationships with New Zealand and with Maori and over time to receive significant donations and put together a number of trusts that have been there to provide donations to the community. The principal purpose of a number of these trusts about which Mr Burns has brought this bill to the House tonight was to provide care for children through a number of orphanages. I will be interested as we go through the Committee stage to learn from Mr Burns how many trusts we are talking about in terms of this bill how many orphanages are part of the Methodist Church as we go forward and also how much money remains in these trusts going forward. 
Clearly as a society we have moved on in terms of having orphanages in our communities as we have now a range of other things across our communities. No longer do we accept that an orphanage is a place for a young child to be held; we have tended to move into a situation where children are fostered into the community or adopted. In that regard and moving on from orphanages we have a situation where the charitable trusts that were set up by the Methodist Church to provide those services are no longer relevant. So there comes a need to change the purpose of those trusts so that the Methodist Church can direct those funds in a modern context. That will be a challenge particularly if the purpose of the trust will again be directed to looking after children. 
When looking at the likes of orphanages mental health institutions and borstals in this country it is interesting to note how as a society we have moved on from those. Last Monday I had the opportunity to visit a number of homes in Hawke’s Bay that have now taken Kimberley Centre patients. We used to have institutions for our mentally ill or our intellectually disabled; we have now moved to a situation where those people are in our communities. It was amazing to go around those New Zealand care homes in Hastings and in Riverbend Road in Napier and to look at the way that these people are being looked after and cared for now in our communities. 
It is interesting to see how communities have moved on. I know that when a number of these homes were first put into the community members of my own community were fearful of what might happen if people from the Kimberley Centre ended up living beside them as neighbours. But now 3 or 4 years down the track the community has embraced those homes and the people there have come on in leaps and bounds. To see the way that a number particularly patients from the Kimberley Centre are now involved in the community is absolutely amazing. I look at Rowan House in Napier as an example. 
I wanted to spend a fair bit of time talking about charitable trusts and the amazing thing that has happened in Parliament in the last number of months with the establishment of a charitable trust for parliamentary sporting teams. But that will have to wait for another day because clearly I am going to run out of time. Charitable trusts are an important part of our community. There is no point having those trusts sitting in abeyance and the funds unable to be used. The Methodist Church has realised there are a number of ways in which it could achieve a change. Going to the High Court is one of the ways but the church has recognised that through an Act of Parliament it can achieve a change to the purposes of the trust a lot quicker. So we are all here to support the bill and its proceeding through Parliament. Thank you.