Boyack Rachel; Salesa JennyTHOMAS CAWTHRON TRUST AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): I move That the Thomas Cawthron Trust Amendment Bill be now read a second time. It is a pleasure to take the first call on the second reading of this important bill for the Cawthron Institute and my electorate of Nelson. Can I begin by putting my thanks on record to a number of people who have supported the passage of this bill. First I want to thank officials from the Office of the Clerk Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Ministry of Justice for their wise advice. This bill has meandered its way through the Parliament a little bit. It has required the occasional piece of advice from the Office of the Clerk from the Parliamentary Counsel Office and from the Ministry of Justice in order to get to this point and I do want to place on record my sincere thanks to those officials for their professionalism in supporting this bill through its progress.I wish to acknowledge members of the Cawthron Institute Trust Board chair John Palmer and two further trustees who have put a lot of energy and time into this bill Sarah-Jane Weir and Harvey Ruru who have been part of our discussions as a trust board over the last couple of years as we've progressed this bill through the House. I also wish to thank local iwi for the way in which they have engaged with the trust board to ensure that their views were heard throughout the development of this bill and through the select committee process. I particularly want to note the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and the members from both sides of the House who have engaged constructively throughout this process. There have been a few amendments made to this bill a number of questions through that process and I want to acknowledge everyone who has diligently and wisely approached this bill so that it comes back to the House in a better form. That is very much appreciated by me.Finally to the two lawyers who have advised the Cawthron Institute throughout this process David McLay and retired Justice John Wild who have both supported the Cawthron Institute through the passage of this bill—and can I acknowledge that John Palmer the chair of the Cawthron trust is in the gallery today alongside David McLay. I just want to acknowledge the tremendous work that you've both done to get us to this point. Finally I do need to acknowledge the Business Committee because we are in a position tonight to progress this bill through to the end of its passage and I hope we will get there. We will be able to take this bill through the second reading through the committee stage and through a shortened third reading tonight and I hope we do get there because that will allow this bill to actually become law and then be utilised by the Cawthron Institute.Before I get into the details of the bill I do just want to note my own interest which I noted in the first reading of the bill that I wear a couple of hats one of which is being the local MP for Nelson that is putting this bill through. But also I sit as one of—what we colloquially call—the statutory trustees as the member for Nelson. I have a role as a statutory trustee on the board of the Cawthron Institute. So I note that interest at the beginning of this speech.So first to who the Cawthron Institute is and why it is such a taonga within Nelson and also within New Zealand. The Cawthron Institute is New Zealand's largest independent science organisation. It was established in 1921 and is over 100 years old. It was one of a number of organisations that were established as a result of a significant bequest from the philanthropic businessman in Nelson named Thomas Cawthron. Alongside the money that he left for a science institute and museum he also left significant bequests to other parts of Nelson that are very special to those of us who call Nelson home including the church steps in front of Nelson cathedral the organ located within the former Nelson School of Music the chains on Rocks Road and for those of us who have the lucky benefit of living in Nelson when we drive around there are reminders of Cawthron's contribution to our region everywhere we go.There are a number of areas that the Cawthron provides significant research and support for both within New Zealand but also on a global scale. We have an incredible number of scientists. We have around 300 staff at Cawthron many of whom are young scientists who come from around 35 different countries from around the world including China Poland the United States France Fiji Australia Germany Sri Lanka England and Italy. There is significant scientific research occurring at the Cawthron Institute in areas of aquaculture freshwater health ocean health our land and soils seafood safety. There are two particular areas of research that have been in the media a lot one of which is the work on algae and Asparagopsis which is algae that can be feed to cattle and help reduce methane emissions; and the project around neosaxitoxin which has a highly localised anaesthetic and the incredible work that Cawthron is doing in conjunction with Boston Children's Hospital to develop a new anaesthetic that does not have addictive properties. These are the kinds of projects that Cawthron is renowned for.Cawthron is an organisation that was established before we had things like the Charities Act and so therefore has its own private Act of Parliament. But this Act does need some freshening up. In the past couple of decades we've had two High Court orders made in 2003 and 2007 that amended through the High Court elements of Cawthron's governance arrangements. We then had changes to the Trusts Act in 2019 and all of those changes together began a process of it becoming somewhat confusing about what the actual governance arrangements of the Act were. And so there's components of those which I'll talk to in a moment which needed to be tidied up.But the most substantial change that we have in the Act is that we are adding a further what we call statutory trustee". So we currently have 10 trustees sitting around the table at the Cawthron Institute. There are four who are there by nature of their roles: the MP for Nelson the Mayor of Nelson the Mayor of Tasman and the Anglican Bishop of Nelson. Those four trustees then appoint a further six trustees to govern the Cawthron Institute at that trust board level. There is a missing person around the table that the trust board has long wanted to add and that as a representative of local iwi. So a significant amount of consultation has occurred with the eight iwi of Te Tauihu across the Top of the South and from the point that this bill receives its Royal assent Te Tauihu iwi will be able to nominate an appointee who will also fulfil what we colloquially call a statutory trustee. So they will have similar powers to the four of us in terms of being able to then appoint the further six members of the trust board.Thomas Cawthron's view was that one should be governed in a way that reflected the community. The will that he left made that clear and it is the view of the trust board unanimously that it is appropriate particularly when we have other elected representatives the Anglican Bishop that iwi are a significant part of our community and should be represented.There are a couple of other small changes to the bill one of which is to include the objects of Cawthron within the bill. We didn't actually have that listed into the Act itself and so this bill will amend the principal Act by sitting at the trust board's objects namely the advancement of science to benefit to Te Tauihu and Aotearoa New Zealand with a focus on natural resources. There are some other changes relating to remuneration and there's one particular I want to note which was that through various court orders and adjustments to the principal Act we have actually become somewhat confused around whether trust board members should be remunerated. Now the trust board members do have a clear view that this is for most people who sit around the table a voluntary role. But we also note that we do require commercial expertise around the table. And so there will be times when it is appropriate to remunerate someone. We have made a change though to ensure that the statutory trustees—the MP and the mayors—are not able to receive remuneration.So I look forward to the remainder of the debate tonight and the committee stage where I can get into the detail of this somewhat more and I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."