Burns Brendon: Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill — Third Reading 
Burns Brendon: Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:659;Page:8394] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I move  
That the Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill be now read a third time 
. It gives me great pleasure to introduce the third reading of the Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill. The Labour Party appreciates the support of the House in making sure that this bill can be considered for passing before the Christmas break. 
This is the first private bill that I have introduced as a member of Parliament. The bill has its origins with my predecessor former senior Government whip and Labour MP for Christchurch Central Tim Barnett. It is and has been a non-controversial bill. It has been given considerable scrutiny by the Finance and Expenditure Committee and changes have been made through the select committee process that are broadly in accordance both with the wishes of the bill’s promoters—that is the Methodist Church of New Zealand—and with the existing legislation that is specific to other such trusts and their operation. 
I take this opportunity to thank my colleagues on the Finance and Expenditure Committee as the bill has progressed through its stages. I also thank the Methodist Church of New Zealand which is headquartered in my electorate of Christchurch Central and Richard Cunliffe and Tanya Surrey who are lawyers based in Queenstown for the law firm MACTODD and who have acted on behalf of the Methodist Church in bringing the bill to my attention. 
The bill has a twofold purpose. First it provides an alternative process to that provided under the existing legislative framework the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 to vary charitable trusts relating to the Methodist Church. That is a cumbersome and expensive process and this mechanism will allow the Methodist Church to make changes to trusts in a much more straightforward and cost-effective way. Secondly the bill expands the purposes for which trusts’ funds and trusts’ properties relating to Methodist orphanages or Methodist children’s homes as they have been held in the past can be applied. These changes allow the Methodist Church to apply these funds and properties to provide care for children and young persons by means other than orphanages and children’s homes which are no longer held run and operated by the Methodist Church. 
Of the changes made in the process of the select committee considerations a couple are worthy of particular note. One relates to clause 18 where we sought to clarify that the trust funds and properties to which Part 3 applies could be used only for charitable purposes. That amendment also removed any doubt as to whether the funds could be used for non-charitable purposes unlikely as that might be given that we are dealing with one of our major churches. 
We also removed clause 21 and inserted a new clause 19A to provide that trustees can be appointed or removed by the Methodist Church only after consultation with those trustees. This changed an earlier provision under which trustees could have been removed by the annual conference of the Methodist Church. The precedent for that was based on section 20 of the Anglican Church Trusts Act. We were looking to accord the Methodists the same provisions as the Anglicans but it was noted by the advisers to the committee that neither the Presbyterians nor the Catholics had such powers under their church trust deed Acts. So we have opted to join the Catholics and the Presbyterians rather than going with the Anglicans. 
In conclusion I again thank my colleagues on the select committee for their support. I thank the House for its support in seeing this bill back in the House prior to Christmas and hopefully for the conclusion of its passage forthwith.