Prime Willow-JeanWILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour): Tēnā koutou katoa. I was trying to think of a waiata or a whakataukī or something like that to start my speech off tonight as has been the custom of my previous speeches but I struggled to find one. So I thought instead I would tell a couple of stories which are absolutely relevant to the legislation that we're talking about tonight.The first is that my law lecturer too will be watching this debate with interest. Equity was one of the most difficult subjects for myself when I was studying law at Waikato University. However I did get it in the end and I passed very well with good grades but I couldn't understand why it just had to be so complex. Then when reading the background to this bill perhaps the fact that the law has been the same for 60 years and is quite archaic explains why many law students I think struggled with equity when I was at university.The other thing that I wanted to share was a bit of a funny story from when I was participating in a moot competition at university. It's all about interpreting law and putting it into your own words and then arguing your case. After our presentations the judge said to my colleague and I that her language was too wooden and fuddy-duddy and mine was the opposite and too casual and relaxed and what we needed was something in between. I really struggled when that judge pulled me up on that because I thought at the time Aren't we supposed to make laws so that they can be obeyed by the people so that they could be understood by the people and if the language that we use in those laws is so difficult to understand then how can we expect people to understand it and obey it?" So I'm really pleased that this bill is looking at modernising a very old piece of legislation so that the objective of these changes—that it will be easier for people to understand and to administer the law—will be achieved.My friends in the legal fraternity might not appreciate me saying some of the comments that I do tonight because of course there is a whole industry in statutory interpretation and providing advice in these areas. But I like the member who spoke before me from the Labour Party Tamati Coffey found myself in the situation of being a trustee on several trusts before my time here. It is something that I saw with my own eyes: people who struggled to understand the law that they are required to administer without the help of legal advice. So any changes that make it easier for people to understand and to be able to fulfil their duties or for beneficiaries to understand what their rights are I wholeheartedly support.So this is a bill to make trust law easier to access and understand. It is the result of the Law Commission review and a 264-page report and I want to acknowledge and thank the Law Commission for their work. The Trusts Bill will update and replace the Trustee Act 1956 and as I said this is the first significant change in the trust law in over 60 years.Trusts are a big part of our legal system. The Ministry of Justice says that there are between 300000 to 500000 trusts operating in New Zealand today so this is a significant piece of legislation that affects a significant number of people. For an area of law that is so well-used it is time that we refreshed it.The objective of the Trusts Bill is to provide better guidance for trustees and beneficiaries and make it easier to resolve disputes and it does this by providing a number of changes which I summarise here: a description of the key features of a trust and the duties of trustees clear rules about when trustees are required to provide information to beneficiaries so that beneficiaries can enforce the trust practical and flexible trustee powers that allow trustees to manage and invest trust property in the most appropriate way and options for removing and appointing trustees without having to go to court in straightforward cases.I wanted to talk specifically about Māori land trusts which are unique to New Zealand and make up a significant proportion of New Zealand's trusts. In fact in the Law Commission's report it notes—and this is back in 2013—that there were 9230 whānau trusts 5575 ahuwhenua trusts 33 whenua tōpū trusts 3 pūtea trusts and 2726 kaitiaki trusts. Along with the settlement legislation and the trusts created through treaty settlements this is a significant area of law for Māori.Māori land trusts are unique and as I said make up a significant proportion of trusts. Unlike express trusts though Māori land trusts are generally not settlor made but are created by order of the Māori Land Court and they are primarily land management structures. They continue in perpetuity and are mostly fixed trusts. It is the intention of this bill that the Māori Land Court and appellant court would continue to apply general trust law in a way that reflects that particular context. The provisions of the Trustee Act and general trust law are applicable to Māori land trusts where Te Ture Whenua Maori Act is silent. Now at the time that that the law commission wrote this report there was also a review of that Act being undertaken but with the Hon Meka Whaitiri here and others I do not propose to talk about the review of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act tonight.This is about making trust law accessible. Large numbers of people are finding themselves as trustees or beneficiaries of trusts who may not have been legally trained and there's confusion amongst many of those trustees as to their role or duties and amongst beneficiaries as to what they can and cannot expect of their trustees. This leads to problems—problems that I have seen in my own communities. If settlors and trustees are confused or unclear as to the nature and effect of settling a trust and their obligations then there's a greater risk of it being improperly administered and this can also increase the likelihood of disputes and litigation between settlors trustees and beneficiaries. So with that I would like to commend the bill to the House because it has great objectives. Kia ora."