Sio William: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10270. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I am delighted to stand in solidarity with my colleagues on this side of the House as well as other members of this House in support of this bill. I have no hesitation whatsoever and I am pleased that by the sounds of those who spoke at the Committee stage of this bill there is unanimous support from all sides of the House. I am also pleased to hear from the Hon Chester Borrows who is a member of this organisation. It is always good to get the personal side and get the personal stories related to this rather than just reading from reports.I do not have any hesitation whatsoever; I stand in support of this legislation. I will tell you why. It is a simple matter for me. The other day I listened to a story related by Professor Clayton Christensen who teaches business at the Harvard Business School. He related a story about how a Marxist economist from China was coming to the end of his term on a Fulbright fellowship at Harvard. The professor had asked him whether there was anything he had learnt that was unexpected or surprising. This Chinese scholar immediately said that there was. He had suddenly realised by being in America how critical religion was to the functioning of democracy. He had learnt that the Government’s role is not to observe and determine what everyone does but that it was to create a framework where everyone voluntarily obeys the rules.He said he believed the reason for that was religion and that religion had this critical role to play in encouraging people to voluntarily—and most people do at most times—obey the rules. He had observed that people would go to church on a Sunday somebody whom they respected and admired would teach them and what he observed was that by and large where religion had an influence most people recognised that they were not only accountable to one another but were accountable to their God. So I want to relate that story in order to recognise the work of this particular association of Christian Churches and recognise the value of them changing the legislation so that it brings things up to date for them and recognise that they have this asset that undoubtedly they do not necessarily want to use for purely real estate purposes but to promote their religion and their faith.I was delighted to know that the other day my colleague Carmel Sepuloni took my place at the opening of the Religious Diversity Centre that was done here in Parliament. I regret sincerely that I was not able to be there because a lot of the inter-faith groups and organisations from Auckland were there. The establishment of that centre is going to be critical for New Zealand going forward because in our history in addition to the indigenous religion—in addition to the Rātana movement—we also have Christianity which has been a part of our history. Whether we go to church or not I think it is important that we recognise that it is part of our history.Moving forward we have also got to recognise that New Zealand is growing; it is becoming a critical member of the international community. As such we are also seeing more and more people from other parts of the world who are also bringing their faith. It does not matter whether it be Muslim or Buddhist or Jewish faith what is important for us is to acknowledge and recognise that. I think that we have the basis and the foundation here in New Zealand where we are able to accept that everybody has the right and the freedom to believe in those things that are dear to them—in fact to believe in their own God. I think the work of this organisation that we are debating about is showing to us that it wants to do good going forward.Largely we see that many church organisations today—for example the Salvation Army the Methodist Mission and the Catholic Church—all have an arm that is doing critical work in our communities. They are not just preaching the gospel if you like in the four walls of the church building they are out there practising what they believe and engaging with the people and supporting people as best they can.It is for those reasons that I do not necessarily need to know the details of this legislation but I recognise that what the Christian Churches is doing is basically upgrading the legislation that has governed and has given powers to its board so that there is clarity and there is an ability for the new trust board to take on the new role utilise the assets it has accumulated over time and recognise that those who have gone have also been able to contribute their worth if you like into the work—and I think it is very important work.Just in concluding I think that there have been several surveys that have been released that show that by and large New Zealand is declining in terms of having a faith whether it be God or believing in anything else. I have to say that there is a younger generation who seems to be yearning for something more than themselves and who seem to be appealing to the churches. I would hate to see this country of ours reach a situation where fewer people are attending church or fewer people have a belief in God and then see us clash with those who do not. I would hope that irrespective of what faiths what beliefs people have—even those who may not believe in God—we in New Zealand would continue to uphold our Kiwi way of recognising that people have the right to believe. I think we can disagree; we can have the arguments but be prepared also to respect that we can agree to disagree and continue to recognise that we are all human beings belonging to this world of ours of the race of humankind.Thank you for the opportunity.