Dowie Sarah: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDowie Sarah: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9815. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): It is a pleasure for me to rise and take this short call on Part 1 of the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill. In some ways this is my swansong for the Government Administration Committee which this bill came to. It was referred to our committee for submissions to be heard and we had two submitters. I really do enjoy the camaraderie actually of the Government Administration Committee. It is a hung committee. It is bipartisan and it was a very very good process that we ran in respect of this bill and it is now a pleasure to have a say in the Committee of the whole House.In respect of Part 1 obviously clauses 3 and 4 cover the interpretation and the purpose of the bill. I will start with the purpose of the bill which is that it repeals the Associated Churches of Christ Church Property Act 1929 an Act that came into force in 1929 and established a board a congregation of Churches that came together for the purposes of holding real property. What they found over time with the evolution of the ministry was that they needed more powers to deal with the property that they held. When they looked at the Act they found that it did not properly set out the powers that allowed them to do that—which was their obligation—and therefore they needed to change that situation in order to sell their property take the proceeds and use those proceeds appropriately in their ministry. So this bill repeals the 1929 Act and establishes a new board that allows them to do that. The new trust board is established under a charitable trust deed—which is comprehensive—under existing trust laws and gives them those wide-ranging powers to enable them to deal with their property.I want to talk about the 30 congregations across the country that belong to the Christian Churches New Zealand group. There is one in Invercargill which I am very pleased about and it too carries out different ministry programmes in Invercargill that have a good social benefit for my constituents. Whether you are religious Christian—spiritual or not—the values that they teach are very good in life and that should be acknowledged and celebrated.I myself am an Anglican. I do not belong to the specific Church that I am talking about here the Christian Churches group but certainly if you look throughout time from the 1929 Act at what these groups of Churches were doing compared with what Church groups do now you can see that the ministry has evolved. I myself have certainly enjoyed learning about theology and the faith and the values that are taught throughout biblical study and learning on an academic level almost about that faith and how you can apply it to your life and work it into your values as you walk through life.Moving back to Part 1 clause 3 “Interpretation” is a very clear interpretation clause which narrows down the definition of the “new board”. It means the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board. The “old board” refers to the board established under the 1929 Act which is the Associated Churches of Christ Church Extension and Property Trust Board. Then it goes on to define the property. So the property that we are talking is real property money and also any land registered under the old board’s name.