Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I rise to confirm New Zealand First's support for this second reading of the Trusts Bill. I actually share Mr Bishop's potential lack of enthusiasm for the dry technical details of the Trusts Bill. This is painstaking stuff and I absolutely commend as he did the officials and everyone that has been involved in bringing this to the state that it is now. Of course long overdue it is repealing the 1956 legislation and 1956—I'm not sure what that means to you but for me 1956 is all about the All Blacks beating the Springboks for the first time in that historic series with Kevin Skinner coming off the bench or coming out of retirement in the third test at Lancaster Park and Peter Jones scoring the—Chris Penk: Did he have a trust?MARK PATTERSON: —winning try at Eden Park—I'm sure they did have trusts because that was the year that this bill came in so they would have availed themselves of that.But that shows you how long ago that was. I remember my father—the reasons why that's relevant—got brought up on the knee hearing those stories and they seemed an age ago but yet we're still operating in this modern economy under rules that were set up when a modern society like ours could hardly be envisaged. Of course it is a fundamental building block to our legal and our financial system. We have some 300000 to 500000 of these trusts and of course goodness knows how many trustees and beneficiaries are a part of that. So this will be a bill that affects a wide number of people and of course they're very important and—I even know as myself and as Ginny Andersen pointed out in her contribution—many of the members of the House have trusts; I have them I'm part of an intergeneration family business. I've got a couple of daughters. I will be looking very carefully when the day comes when they start bringing boys or girls maybe in this day and age home. A trust is part of that to make sure that we can safely transfer that good work that's been done by generations before through to the next generation and hopefully beyond.Of course there's all sorts of—that's in a family or business trust but they go up to you know we're looking at Māori land trusts we're looking at unit trusts charitable trusts which play such a cornerstone in our society. So within those submissions—we had 34 of them 14 oral and I would like to as others have acknowledge David Goddard QC as the independent adviser. I know he's also advising the Parliament on another bill at the moment and I can attest to how skilled he is. So this bill sets out to simplify the system and put it in plain English and I think that's really important because those 300000 to 500000 trusts—the people that are the beneficiaries or trustees aren't necessarily financially or legally literate. They're often maybe in a time of grief or something when they're seeking to address the issues with the assets and transfer of wealth. Through these trusts they can often I would imagine feel overwhelmed; they're faced with legal situations that they may not understand and they are really really important decisions that they'll be looking to make.So anything that we can do to clarify and put into plain English is very very important indeed. That's exactly what this bill sets out to do and we know that this was initiated by the Law Commission in 2009 and I think it took through to 2013 for it to come out as a report and it came to Parliament as a draft report in 2016. I would in all fairness acknowledge the previous Government the Hon Amy Adams for the work that she did getting it to the point that she did. So it does a number of important things. It clarifies the management of information and the communication of that information and how that has to be disclosed to beneficiaries. It gives flexibility and trustee powers so that we can execute investment decisions more efficiently. It updates provisions around agents and how they can assume trustee powers and it gives some more options for appointing trustees and taking out of the court system some of those steps. It also takes out the perpetuities and I think that incorporates the Perpetuities Act 1964 and there is the 125-year provision which puts a deadline—quite a long one I might say.So there are a number of really important key elements that have come in this bill. The Justice Committee has gone through and tested that making sure it's fit for purpose and I commend the Justice Committee for doing that and the Minister of Justice for continuing to shepherd this bill through the House. It is an important bill. It will affect a lot of people. It will simplify things. It will save a lot of money and complexity with legal fees and it will also by default unclog our court system as well through minor issues that can be dealt with potentially outside the court system. So it's a very positive bill one long overdue and one that I'm glad is receiving good support from the Parliament and certainly enthusiastic support from New Zealand First. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.