Mitchell Mark: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9818. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): I am very happy too to take a call on Part 1 of the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill. I am disappointed. I would have expected the chair of our Government Administration Committee Ruth Dyson to take a call and speak about this because I noticed that when the member in the chair Alfred Ngaro was standing and giving an introduction on the bill there was some strong interjection. There appeared to be a lot of emotion. It appears that she is upset about something. I would encourage her to stand up and take a call. I think that is important.I would like to acknowledge the member in the chair. I think it is very appropriate that he is in the chair covering for the Hon Nick Smith. I want to acknowledge the Hon Nick Smith. He brought this bill to the House in support of his constituents. Of course it has a far-reaching effect because we have Churches from the far north to the far south including the member’s own electorate that are affected by this bill. So it is a very good one. I also want to acknowledge the member in the chair because he has got personal experience of having run his own Church and ministry inside both west Auckland and South Auckland. So he has got real-life experience of the work that these Churches do—the important work that these Churches do—in their communities.Thank you Mr Chair if you will bear with me I will come back to Part 1—you are right. I just wanted to very quickly talk about the effect that this bill has from the far north—and I have said in earlier speeches and have referred to the Mairangi Bay Community Church. The reason why this one is special for me is that I was born and raised in Mairangi Bay. I have personal knowledge of the Church and I have personal knowledge of the work that it does in its community.Actually to have a bill like this that is—and my colleague Brett Hudson made a very good point. To be able to enact legislation like this will allow the board to be able to manage its assets much better and it is actually very very important to allow it to be able to actually deliver the important projects that it sponsors and that it works on in our communities.Hon Member: It will make a real difference.MARK MITCHELL Actually it will make a real difference. Being able to manage those assets properly is very very important. He referred to the mixed-ownership model. That is actually a really good example where this Government was able to convert assets that we felt that we did not need to have—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! No clauses 3 and 4.MARK MITCHELL: Oh you are right—you are right. So if we come back to Part 1 the interpretation in this bill is the context that “ ‘new board’ means the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board”—as I have said—“incorporated as a board under Part 2 of the Charitable Trusts Act 1957”.Chris Bishop: What part?MARK MITCHELL: That was the Charitable Trusts Act of 1957. That is where it was originally incorporated. The “ ‘old board’ means the Associated Churches of Christ Church Extension and Property Trust Board” and “ ‘property—(a) means every type of property and (b) includes—(i) every type of estate and interest in property; and (ii) money;”. That is actually very important. What I was alluding to and what I was trying to get to is the point that Mr Hudson made around the use of assets and that is the fact that sometimes it is actually prudent to liquidate assets that are maybe not achieving the return that the Church may want and it might be better to actually liquidate them and realise that in cash and be able to manage the asset as cash instead.So that is a very very important part of Part 1 in the preliminary provisions. It also includes “all land registered in the name of the old board under the Land Transfer Act” and that is actually under the Land Transfer Act of 1952 Mr Bishop in case you were wondering.Chris Bishop: We’re reforming that Act as well.MARK MITCHELL: That is right—that is right. We are reforming that Act—very good point. We are going to modernise the Land Transfer Act 1952. The purpose of this bill is to transfer all of the existing property interests powers and obligations of the old board to the new board and dissolve the old board and remove it from the register of charitable trust boards under—