Foster-Bell Paul: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10271. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā mema o Te Whare Pāremata o Aotearoa. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this third reading debate on the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill a private bill that stands in the name of my friend and colleague the Hon Dr Nick Smith. This bill has been canvassed quite widely throughout the different stages that we have debated so far and in this third reading debate. I will seek to make a few points during this call but first I want to put on record my thanks for the indulgence of the House that was given for the previous matter—that is for my Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association alcohol bill to be moved to the top of the Order Paper ahead of this bill. As a private bill this would usually have sat ahead of members’ orders of the day. So I would like to put on record my thanks to the House for that.This bill as was put in the words of my colleague the Hon Chester Borrows is dealing with an organisation that has become asset-rich but which needs to focus on its activity. There are many examples of these sorts of organisations that we could look at. I have the pleasure of representing the Pacific region on the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. That is one example of an organisation that unfortunately for a few years at least has devoted something like 70 percent of its resources to administration property clerical matters and HR and only 30 percent of its resource—of its subscriptions that it collects from its members—to activity to delivering programmes on democratic good governance. In a similar way over the course of time Christian Churches New Zealand formerly known as the Associated Churches of Christ has developed this issue whereby it has buildings that may not be in the right place or necessarily the right size to accommodate its changing membership numbers. This asset is tying up a considerable amount of capital that could be devoted to its mission and to service and to providing the charitable services that it offers to its members its parishioners.I would like to refer to a member of Christian Churches New Zealand that is based in the area I seek to represent as a National list MP Wellington Central. In Karori we have St Anselm’s Union Church which I think provides an excellent case study of why this legislation is necessary. St Anselm’s Union Church is at the far end of Karori on Mākara Road as you head out to Mākara Beach. It is named after Saint Anselm a former Archbishop of Canterbury who was actually born in Italy in the year 1033. At the age of 26 he moved to Normandy and accompanied William the Conqueror over on the Norman invasion of Britain. He became the archbishop at the age of 60. Uniquely he was declared by popular acclaim to be a doctor of the Church and then a saint rather than by a formal appointment process within the Church hierarchy.St Anselm’s Union Church named after Saint Anselm is a small Christian community. It is there to encourage according to its mission statement the development of a dynamic and living Christian faith to share its faith with others in the wider community and to work for peace and justice for all. Whether you are a person of faith or someone who is irreligious I think we can admire the fact that it is seeking to work for peace and justice for all and to deliver a community service to people in their area. The Churches of Christ were traditionally of course a laity-led organisation but St Anselm’s Union Church is presided over by a minister the Rev. Geraldine Coats. I think it is also interesting that St Anselm’s Union Church is one of the more liberal Christian communities that we have here in Wellington. For instance in September 2014 it formally expressed the concerns of its congregation about a decision taken by the General Assembly of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church a stance in relation to whether people who are in relationships outside of marriage could serve as preachers or ministers. St Anselm’s Union Church certainly marked itself out as one of the more liberal communities.The amenities that it offers the community are highly valued. For instance there is a craft group that attracts a regular following. Its community hall is hired out to groups to offer a wide range of different social and hobby activities. The Church’s main service takes place on a Sunday at 10 a.m. but it also has very interesting guest lectures and I would point to two series of guest lectures that were provided by Professor Lloyd Geering a member of the Order of New Zealand and so one of our 20 greatest living New Zealanders and also I believe the only person to have been convicted in a heresy trial in a canon court here in New Zealand. Professor Geering offered some very interesting lectures. “What we owe to Ancient Iran” was one of them. This was talking about the Zoroastrian religion and how that fed into modern Christianity. We also had “What we owe to Ancient Iraq” talking about the laws of Hammurabi and the 12-based Sumerian numerical system. This is the ancient system of counting by twelves which actually our system for measuring time the calendar our directions on a compass—much of our modern system of counting—is derived from. Then there was an interesting series of lectures called“The Greening of Christianity” on ecological morality I suppose. These were allowing the parishioners at that Church but also wider members of the community who wanted to come in to listen to them an opportunity to think more widely and to learn something new from a professor and one of our 20 greatest living New Zealanders. I think we can all agree that that was a very useful amenity that was offered to the community there.In its mission statement St Anselm’s Union Church points out that it seeks to draw people into a caring Christian fellowship by providing meaningful worship the study of the gospel community activities a creche and children’s programmes. I think the creche and children’s programmes that are offered in both their kitchen area and the hall are highly valued by members of the community in Karori. These are the sorts of activities that through this bill we are seeking to underpin by empowering the property trust board of Christian Churches New Zealand to be able to deliver services rather than focus on administration. I would note that there is nothing in the Church’s mission statement that talks about the maintenance of property and rates and keeping the power switched on and all of those issues that one has with properties. Its mission statement outlines the activities that it is seeking to deliver to its people.This bill supports the Church in that goal of giving individuals an opportunity for spiritual growth rather than tying up the management and the administration of the Church in dealing with property trusts that have become outdated. This is a bill that has been through the select committee. I am now on the Government Administration Committee although unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to sit on that committee while we heard the two submissions—there were only two submissions on this bill. One of the submissions supported the bill as it is. There was another submission calling for a sunset clause to be inserted but the committee on consideration decided that on balance the sunset clause was not necessary.Why is this legislation needed? There are a couple of good reasons why we do need to enact this. Firstly there has been a name change. What was the Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand is now Christian Churches New Zealand. It has changed its name and the original enabling legislation the Associated Churches of Christ Church Property Act 1929 deals with the organisation as it was then named. There has been a change in name and as we know from recent disclosures from Panama the issues around trusts can be quite contentious. I do not think this is one of those issues. This is a trust that no one will have an objection to. It is a trust that seeks to underpin the Church and the valuable work it does. I think the issue around the naming of the Church and the renaming of the Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand did need to be dealt with.Also the legislation is effectively bringing the Church under wider general charitable trust law. I think that is a positive. In a previous era almost every organisation every school and even some individuals wanted their own private piece of legislation. Rather than giving updated private legislation continually to organisations I think it is actually better lawmaking to do as we are doing here in bringing this organisation under the auspices of having a charitable trust which is governed by general trust law rather than a unique and specific piece of legislation. There were also some doubts as to the board’s ability to legally hold the properties that have been vested in it because of those name changes that relate to when the private bill was first enacted.I think this is a very clear and good piece of legislation and I commend it to the House.