Dyson Ruth: Protection of Personal and Property Rights Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Dyson Ruth: Protection of Personal and Property Rights Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:642;Page:11820] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for Senior Citizens) 
: 
 I first of all add my thanks to that already given to the officials who have worked so hard and constructively with the Social Services Committee on this bill. I also repeat the comments I made in my second reading speech and thank the select committee. It is not well known amongst the public of New Zealand that policy differences are often put aside during the select committee process for the betterment of bills and this has certainly been an example of that. So I acknowledge all of the members of the select committee rather than just those of my own party which I do not think is very appropriate to do at a time like this. 
I also want to address Supplementary Order Paper 145 in my name which proposes a number of changes that I draw to the attention of the Committee. It starts off with changes to clauses 7 and 8. These are technical changes that clarify the relationship between new section 94(A) which specifies the requirements for creating an enduring power of attorney and section 95 of the principal Act which sets out when a power of attorney is an enduring power of attorney. That is the first change set out on my Supplementary Order Paper. 
The next change replaces subsection (1) of new section 94A with a new subsection that provides that section 94A applies only to powers of attorney executed after the bill comes into force. That clarification is obviously needed. It inserts new section 95(1) to provide that: “Except as otherwise provided in this section a power of attorney that meets the requirements of section 94A is an enduring power of attorney.” So they are points of clarification. 
The next change proposed in my Supplementary Order Paper is to clause 15. It basically corrects an earlier oversight in new section 100A which as the explanatory note of the Supplementary Order Paper states: “enables a donor of an enduring power of attorney who has been but is no longer mentally incapable to suspend the attorney’s authority to act under the power.” This amendment ensures that the court’s determination of the donor’s mental incapacity if any is taken into account for the purposes of this new section. 
The next clause that is amended by my Supplementary Order Paper is clause 16. That is a technical amendment; it just removes an incorrect section reference from the principal Act so I am sure there will not be a lot of debate about that. 
Then the next amendment is to clause 18—the part of Part 2 that the member who has just resumed her seat Judith Collins spoke to. The proposed amendments to this clause relate mainly to new section 103A. It is amended to provide consistency of wording as a consequence of the changes I referred to in clauses 7 and 8. It also corrects a minor drafting error so that we have terminology that is consistent and I know that members in this Chamber will be particularly interested in that consistency. 
The next changes which are the final ones in this Supplementary Order Paper are to clauses 21 and 24. They are further technical amendments that correct minor drafting errors for consistency of terminology by replacing “made” with “executed”. I am sure the Supplementary Order Paper will continue to be well supported by parties in the Chamber. It is a pleasure to be able to progress with strong support legislation whose primary purpose is to give better financial protection and to ensure that the persons’ interests are carried through when they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves. 
We now know that the most vulnerable people in our society who are dependent on some other trusted person to make a decision for them will have much stronger backing from the law to make sure that that trust is not abused. Sadly for us all that trust is abused by members of families. In fact that is the biggest concern in terms of elder abuse and neglect that is referred to the services that our Government funds throughout the country. Perhaps it is the one that is the most reported but it is certainly one that we are taking big steps to address in this legislation so I urge its speedy progress throughout the Committee stage.