St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill — First Reading

ST PETER'S PARISH ENDOWMENT FUND TRUST BILL

First Reading

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): I move, That the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Governance and Administration Committee to consider the bill.

The purpose of this bill is to modernise the governing arrangements of the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund, which was last updated by the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Act 1927. I don't think any member of the House was here, and possibly no member of the House was born at that time. So needless to say, the legislation—

Nicola Grigg: Ian was!

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I was looking at Mr McKelvie when I said that—choosing my words wisely, Nicola Grigg, who made that comment. But needless to say, the legislation is a little out of date.

To provide members with a little bit of background, St Peter's church is on Willis Street in Wellington. It's about 50 metres from my electorate office, and it's one of the oldest institutions here in our city. Throughout many years, the church has provided important community services for the people of Wellington. It has been the home of a number of very influential members of the Anglican Church. I think of Godfrey Nicholson, who delivered an extremely important sermon around the rights of homosexual people at St Peter's in the late 1960s, which was a groundbreaking sermon; the Rev.—I think he's the Very Rev.—Richard Randerson, who is a person who has led the Anglican Church over many years, a campaigner for social justice, been appointed to many different Government bodies; and even produced a city councillor in Brian Dawson, who was also the vicar there too.

It is a parish that is well-known in Wellington for its emphasis on social justice, which has been a fundamental part of their mission from their formation until the present day. Throughout my 15 years as the MP for Wellington Central, I visited the church countless times—as have other colleagues such as Nicola Willis—for candidate meetings, public forums, book launches. I've even been there for the Fringe Festival prize-giving on a few occasions—which is about the least religious event I can think of, but the church has always been extraordinarily welcoming of these sorts of events.

The advocacy, as I say, their support of communities like the rainbow community, their connection to the Anglican Chinese Mission, the Wellington City Mission, the Downtown Community Ministry—which actually, when that was called the "ICM" many years ago, was really driven by people from St Peter's—The Free Store, which is there now, and Wellington's ethnic food bank.

Members of the St Peter's congregation contribute to national issues; make submissions on issues like climate change, Working for Families, fair pay agreements, and the living wage, which has been a very big part of their work. The church has hosted in recent years the Ngā Kōrero debate series, which, as I say, I've had the privilege of being a part of, along with a vast array of community groups—including, I might note, interfaith groups where St Peter's has always been very open. So this is a church which prides itself on being a place where the community can gather, a place where people can come for support—and I'm proud to introduce this bill on their behalf, which will help them to keep serving Wellingtonians now and long into the future.

In terms of the trust that sits at the heart of this bill, we need to go back to 1922, when the trust was created to manage the endowment of £1,347 for the benefit of the parish. The intention was that that fund and any legacies, donations, and surplus revenue added over the years would be invested in securities to "accumulate at compound interest." Clause 4 of the trust deed says that no part of the fund could be distributed until the accumulated investments totalled £1,500.

The St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Act 1927 changed the minimum amount the fund needed before distribution from £1,500 to £10,000—96 years later, there's significantly more than £10,000 in the pot and St Peter's would like to be able to put a chunk of it to good use. I think the simple fact that the trust deed and the subsequent Act are talking about pounds probably indicates why the Act needs to be updated.

What the bill does is it essentially fixes the trust deed and brings it into the 21st century. Since the 1927 Act, Parliament has passed the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, the Anglican Church Trusts Act 1981, and the Trusts Act 2019—and St Peter's church, quite rightly, wants their trust deed to align with current legislation. This includes changes to the legal liability of trustees and enabling updates to the trust's board governing arrangements.

Just briefly, working through the bill, the preamble explains the context and history just as I have outlined it now, and has standard introductory clauses. Clause 4 restates the purpose of the trust bill in the same manner as described in the original trust deed: "such purposes of the parish that are of religious, charitable, or educational nature as the vestry, from time to time, directs."

Clause 5 makes the most important change to the trust board's investment and distribution powers. Under clause 5 of the original deed, they cannot distribute any more money than the amount of income accrued in the previous financial year. As members would no doubt realise, this significantly restricts the ability of St Peter's church to invest back into their community. Clause 5 changes this to allow the trust board to distribute up to 4 percent of the endowment fund in any financial year, or any additional distribution up to 20 percent in certain circumstances. It also allows the board to lend to the parish.

Clauses 6 and 7 deal with the administrative powers and legal liability of the trustees. As I say, this brings the trust board into line with current legislation.

Clause 8 revokes clauses 4 and 5 of the original trust deed. These two clauses were the ones which restricted the ability of the trust to invest more into their community. Revoking these clauses also empowers the trust to purchase property—previously, they were only allowed to receive land or buildings via gift or bequest.

Clause 9 futureproofs the trust deed by allowing any future changes that may be needed to be made under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 or the Anglican Church Trusts Act 1981, so we don't need to go through a lengthy private bill process again. Finally, clause 10 repeals the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Act 1927.

This bill has been widely consulted upon within the church community. I understand that members of the parish have also spoken with members of Parliament here. I want to thank St Peter's for their work in getting the bill into the shape that it is. I am merely the vessel by which it arrives in Parliament, as is the nature with private bills. But as the member of Parliament for this area for the last 15 years and a close neighbour of the church, I am delighted to be able to help them go forward into the future and achieve their goals of supporting their community as they have done so often over the years. I commend the bill to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): The question is that the motion be agreed to.

NICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): I too am delighted to be able to speak on this bill and take a few moments to reflect on a Wellington institution, which is St Peter's on Willis. And I do so, in echoing the remarks of the previous speaker, with, I must say, a little bit of nostalgia, because the Hon Grant Robertson and I—he is correct—have had many a debate in the St Peter's building, on all numbers of issues. It is unlikely we will have that opportunity again at the election, as neither of us are standing in Wellington Central, although perhaps, Grant, there will be other occasions that will bring us together there. I also share the fondness for St Peter's attitude of openness, of inclusion, of diversity. When I think of the range of events I've attended there, with the range of communities of faiths, of issues, of causes for celebration, it truly reflects the nature of our modern city and the people in it. I remember that Fringe Awards event too, Mr Robertson, and that was the first time I met Hugo Grrrl, and there's no going back from that.

I would also acknowledge that St Peter's on Willis has an important role as a community institution and as a church. And it seems to me that we often have opportunities to lament on how the church has become a weakened institution in modern society. It seems to me that there are really great models in New Zealand of churches that have evolved with the times, that have taken Christian values and thought about how we apply them to society today, and I see in St Peter's a Christian institution that has decided to embrace Christianity in the biggest sense of its terms and its values and has extended compassion to Wellingtonians from many walks of life. You see that with The Free Store that it hosts, where it takes food from Wellington businesses and distributes it to those in need. You see that in its attitude of inclusion to all comers, its efforts to be a safe space physically, emotionally, spiritually. And you see that in the way that it has got both a long history but a modern future. I think that is really something to celebrate.

In these remarks, I do want to acknowledge the people who keep institutions current, and, in particular right now, St Peter's on Willis has some co-vicars—Rev. Stephen King, Rev. Jean Malcolm, and Rev. Charles Waldegrave—who are real leaders in our community. I also want to acknowledge Ross Tanner, the chairman of the trust board, who I know has been instrumental in this piece of modernisation that we discuss in Parliament tonight. Because, as both me and the Hon Grant Robertson have acknowledged, this is a great institution that has evolved with the times and contributes a lot. The trust rules on which it is based are, obviously, very outdated, and I think it's appropriate that we update those rules so that the trust can in future make the decisions that it wants to make.

It seems a little bit strange that Parliament needs to get involved in a matter of this sort. Surely, we can all agree that in future it should be for the trust board itself to be making decisions of this nature, and not a matter that Parliament needs to be legislating or involving itself in. So it is for that reason that we in National are supportive of these propositions, and we acknowledge the impetus behind them, which is to allow the endowment fund, which was established many, many years ago, to keep evolving with the times and to have more impact into the future. That seems to us a good thing indeed, and it does, of course, require that those involved take seriously their responsibilities in order that they exercise those functions well and so that the trust can continue for another hundred years beyond that.

So, in closing, it is my delight to support this bill, to have the opportunity to reflect warmly on a Wellington institution that I have very much enjoyed being able to share in, to reflect on what it is to be a church in modern New Zealand, to reflect on the really important role of community institutions and the way in which they can do good for wider groups, even beyond those who hold the Christian values which they were originally designed to propagate. So thank you, Madam Speaker, and can I say to the Hon Grant Robertson: maybe next time we'll see you back there and we'll be talking finance instead.

GLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora, Madam Speaker. I rise and I want to tautoko what's already been said on both sides of the House this evening. And I want to come back to the Hon Grant Robertson's opening comments, and it's around Rev. Godfrey Wilson. Now, he alluded to the sermon that he preached back in the 1960s, and I had the privilege of attending the 50th anniversary of this significant sermon. Now, of course you've all heard of it, you all know it verbatim I'm guessing, but it actually was quite controversial back in the day because back then, church services were broadcast live on National Radio at the time. In fact, when I was growing up I also remember it. What used to happen is that the producers of these National Radio church broadcasts would actually, you know, not take over the pulpit, but they would have some editorial discretion on what the priests and the ministers would say.

So Godfrey Wilson played this game rather well. In the 1960s, as you can imagine, homosexuality within the church and within society in general was frowned upon. So the reverend, he had written two sermons, and, of course, he gave one sermon to the producer of the Radio New Zealand broadcast and, of course, he retained his own version of the sermon—and this is, as it is now, live. So Rev. Godfrey Wilson got up on 26 June 1967 to preach what the producers thought was just your usual bland and ordinary sermon. Apologies to our ministers and reverends out there. But he delivered this piece, which was around the inclusion of the gay community—in fact, the inclusion of one particular man that he had met, that he had engaged with. Of course, there was panic and there was fluster, and there was nerves going around the building, but they were unable to do anything because obviously it was live, and Godfrey was on his pulpit, preaching his sermon.

Now, that had ripple effects that went beyond St Peter's, that had ripple effects that went beyond Wellington; it went all around New Zealand. In fact, I do believe there was a complaint made to the Broadcasting Standards Authority, or whatever it was at the time, there was a protest made. But that was the first sermon that was publicly preached in New Zealand around the affirmation of our LGBTIQ+ community. As Nicola Willis mentioned, the reason I was keen to speak on this piece of legislation this evening was because I believe that this is a church that actually lives and models what is the Christian faith, what is the Jesus story that many of us hear about. But often we don't see it warped. So when we look at St Peter's parish and what the money goes to, yeah, there is a flash building. Yeah, there is an old building that needs a lot of work and needs a lot of money. But as has already been talked about, there are those services to the poor, there are those services to feed the hungry. They are a social justice church and that's why it's a church that I've had the privilege of attending on many occasions, I've been to midnight Mass there and other services.

I was looking them up, and they talk about being a social justice community especially for the last, the lost, and the least. And I think that is a really important rhetoric for a church to be making in this day and age, that they are not just there to fill their coffers, not just to build their palaces and their mansions but a church like St Peter's is one that is there to look beyond themselves and to reach into their community. Whether you have faith, or none at all, that doesn't matter. They are a church that lives a story that they believe in and they show and wear it on their sleeves, with their sleeves rolled up as they serve their community.

The St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill is around, obviously, unlocking the potential. It's a very simplistic piece of legislation. It's something that's there which will help for the church to continue its work of social justice, its work of actually holding this House to account, which isn't easy. Sometimes it's frustrating and it's uncomfortable, but they make a number of submissions to this House on many different bills as they come through, whether it be about the climate, whether it be about three waters, whether it be around working for families, around our wellbeing budgets, around conversion practice prohibitions. They are a church that lives and breathes their sleeves rolled up to serve their community, therefore I support this piece of legislation to the House.

Dr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): Kia ora. Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Ngā mihi aroha ki ngā whānau o Ōtautahi i tēnei rā.

[My condolences also to the families of Christchurch today.]

It is indeed wonderful to rise on behalf of the Green Party in support of this private bill that makes amendments to the trust deed governing the St Peter's (Wellington) Endowment Trust Board. I acknowledge the member for Wellington Central for bringing this to the House.

The Green Party envisions a strong and independent tangata whenua community and voluntary sector within Aotearoa that contributes to ecologically and socially sustainable ways to enhance our social, environmental, cultural, physical, spiritual, mental, and economic wellbeing. St Peter's has definitely contributed to this.

The Anglican Church is one of the oldest and most historical institutions in Wellington, and it is known for its diverse and welcoming congregation, embracing all, regardless of sex, gender, sexuality, race, or faith. They do have a long history, as my colleagues have alluded to, of advocating for LGBTIQ communities, including that landmark sermon on homosexuality in 1967, which is just incredible. They have even hosted me to speak in there, and we filmed the documentary Beyond Conversion in that church. We note that social justice has always been fundamental to St Peter's mission, and the church also hosts The Free Store and the DYA weekly ethnic food bank. They have also actively contributed to democracy. They regularly submit on bills to this House—and I note particularly climate change, the zero carbon bill, and conversion practices.

Now, we note that this trust was set up such a long time ago, in 1922, for the benefit of their parish. That capital amount in the fund has, of course, grown significantly through donations and bequest, and used for church maintenance and upkeep, as well as community-based projects, because that's what the current trust deed allows.

However, those trust deeds do have a limited ability to disperse those funds and that surplus income as they would like to. So we note that this bill makes it easier for them, it provides more flexibility, and enables the trustees to distribute those funds as they see fit, and not be restricted to the income which is earned in the previous year. As others have stated, it modernises the governing arrangements and limits the liability of its members.

So, in a better world, an organisation could hold a hui of its members, update their ancient trust deed and make sure it complies with best-practice and relevant legislation, such as the one St Peter's held in April 1921. But in this world, this organisation has to repeal a law from 1927 and make a new one to achieve its own goals and spend its own money. So this bill will ensure that they don't need to change the law again in order to change their trust deed. We support St Peter's vision and I quote that "These changes to the endowment trust deed will ensure that the church's long engagement with the people of Wellington will continue for another 100 years." So we commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.

Dr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you, Madam Speaker. It's a real pleasure to rise and speak in support of this bill, and just noting the advocacy and the sponsorship of my colleague, the Hon Grant Robertson. It's been a real pleasure to just listen to the debate across the House tonight, and to various colleagues reflecting on their engagement with St Peters' on Willis. For me, I haven't had the opportunity to attend a service there, and I haven't had the opportunity to attend an event, but it gave me a really good opportunity just to sit down and have a read about the church's history and some of the contributions that they've made.

And I think, basically—I mean, we're talking about the St Peter's Endowment Fund Trust Board, which was established on 8 August 1922. But going back through the history, the actual parish has had a much longer engagement with the Wellington community. The parish had a church on site and was engaged from basically 1848, and then the current building that many of us walk past every day was consecrated in 1879. And it was just interesting reading some of the history around—in the context where there was a significant earthquake in Wellington and how the church became a base for reaching out to the community and providing support. And even going on to the current church's website and just having a read of some of the activities they're currently involved in. As colleagues have said, they've done a lot of advocacy across a whole range of issues in the Wellington community, but also engaging here in Parliament. But particularly the one that was interesting to look at was the partnership they've got with The Free Store, which operates out of their car park as a converted shipping container, and basically that ministry takes food from all around the city. So businesses donate food and then that's passed on a daily basis to people can just turn up and access food without any questions being asked. I think the whole model, indicated by the church also, is that people can turn up as a safe space and they can engage and be part of things without any questions being asked. So really, really great to be seeing some of the work that's been done.

But what they're operating out of is a very old trust deed. And so basically as we've heard, in 1927, the trust deed was modified by the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Act 1927. And one of the things that did was increase their requirements for the funds accumulated. You know, prior to that amendment, the requirement was that the funds had to accumulate to £1,500 before anything could be distributed, and that amendment increased it up to £10,000. And as you can see, we're really, really out of date in terms of the provisions of that Act. And so basically what this bill will do is allow the current trust board to, basically, be able to provide funds for charitable purposes in a much more flexible manner. So now what they can do—if this bill is passed—is to distribute up to 4 percent of the fund each financial year rather than being tied to a requirement that they can only distribute the equivalent to the income that they had in the previous year. And so basically now they can distribute up to 4 percent without having to take into account the fund's income or capital. It also allows the trust board to lend to the parish.

The other thing that it does though, is in exceptional circumstances it will allow the vestry to request the trust board to make some additional distributions, and there's a number of criteria that they need to consider when they're thinking about whether that could be possible: looking at what the investment strategy of the trust is, what the need of the parish is and the desirability to maintain capital in the fund, and anything else that they consider necessary. But once they have considered that, that allows them to basically distribute up to 20 percent of the fund in any one year if they think, in those exceptional circumstances, that that is necessary. And what that means is more flexibility in terms of the trust board being able to consider what the needs are within the boundaries of the trust. So really, really important.

One of the other things it does too, is it updates some of the governance and administration arrangements—and particularly talking about the legal liability of the trust board in members, because I think it's important that that is kept up to date with other equivalent legislation. So this is a really wonderful bill that will basically just update and mean that the Trust Board has got much more flexibility in terms of managing the funds that it's responsible for distributing. And I'm very happy to commend it to the House.

KAREN CHHOUR (ACT): Thank you, Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a short call on the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill and stand in support of this bill. It makes sense and it just allows such a wonderful organisation to take control of their own destiny, instead of having to constantly come to Parliament to make these decisions for them. It brings an ancient piece of legislation into the current century, and I think that this is a really positive thing. I myself haven't had the opportunity to visit St Peter's or have any events there myself as well, but I have heard some pretty amazing things about what they are doing to contribute to the community and people afar.

I believe there always has to be a place for people to go where they can feel welcome, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what their gender, sexuality, race, or faith is, so that they know they won't be turned away and they know there's a place that they will be welcomed, especially in the times we've faced in the last few years. With isolation, with COVID, with the floods, with the cyclone, and with all of these things that are going on, we rely on community organisations and churches to provide for these communities, and that's what St Peter's has been doing. They've been providing for their community, feeding their communities spiritually and physically with food when people need it, and I believe that this is really important that we back them to be able to take control of what they do with their funds and allow the trust board to have that discretion and to be able to do what they need to do to open up some of those funds and release the full potential of what they will be able to do in the future.

So I wish them all the best, and I look forward to seeing what they can do when they have control, because they've done amazing things with the restrictions that have been in place so far. So I really look forward to seeing what they're going to do, and I commend this bill to the House.

LEMAUGA LYDIA SOSENE (Labour): Aassalamo alaikum and I would just like to acknowledge the 51 members of our community that we lost four years ago.

I rise to make a short contribution to this bill, the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill. As we've heard from the previous speakers, the purpose of this bill is to modernise the original trust deed governing the St Peter's Endowment Fund Trust Board. In particular, it allows for the governance of the parish to be able to manoeuvre in today's times. The amount of the income earned that this particular bill focuses on is to bring this bill to the House in terms of enabling—because at the moment there is quite a restriction for governance in terms of dispersing the funds.

The points that I wanted to raise were that currently it provides a limitation on the liability of the members of the trust board. It enables, in terms of modernising, updating the governance arrangements. And the bill provides for any future amendments to the trust deed to be made under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, or the Anglican Church Trust Act 1981, in terms of repealing the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Act.

Just a little bit of history for those watching from home. I have not had the privilege—I've gone past the parish a number of times, of St Peter's, but not actually visited. But what I wanted to highlight was the parish is part of the Anglican diocese. Although it's located in Wellington, it has quite a large relationship with local communities and in the broader province throughout the motu and in the Pacific region. And just this week, I met a number of the leadership of the Anglican Church who have just returned from Fiji. The Archbishop, the Most Rev. Sione Uluilakepa has just had his ordination and a number of members, senior members, of the Anglican Church from Wellington visited and were part of the ordination. He is the new Bishop of Polynesia.

The Anglican Church, the St Peter's parish, provides doctrine in terms of scripture, ancient creeds, and the ways of worship. And one of the helpful things of this bill—the modernisation—is it encapsulates the old and the new. It is such a welcoming parish to the community. As you've heard other speakers say, many in our community have been through a really rough time and the church is a sacred building and open to the public and welcomes and is a place of safety, given just all the things that we have been through in our community.

The bill restates the purposes of the trust board in the same manner as the original trust deed, and the board or the governing group will be able to distribute 4 percent of the trust fund in any financial year and make additional distributions in certain circumstances, up to 20 percent in any financial year.

So the bill seeks to update and modernise for the board of trustees so that the St Peter's parish governance can continue its vital mahi in the local community. Because as we've heard today, St Peter's parish has a long and rich history advocating for social justice, feeding our community or the community specifically in Wellington, spiritually, culturally, and in particular, the social justice arm or the committee of social justice has been a vital group, who have advocated strongly for the members or the citizens, vulnerable citizens, in the community.

The private bill will help change the law as it sits outside the mechanism of general law. And on that note, I commend this bill to the House.

Dr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula): Thank you, Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to stand and take a call and make a contribution to the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill at this first reading, and I acknowledge local member of Parliament Hon Grant Robertson for ushering this private bill through this House.

As many of my colleagues have done throughout this debate and throughout debates that have come before this debate tonight, I also would also like to acknowledge the events of 15 March that happened in Christchurch, and particularly the 51 shuhada who have been in my thoughts all this week. Having heard tonight about St Peter's parish, and all of the wonderful work that they do and the welcoming nature of their community, I can only assume that they would indulge me for a few more moments while I extend my thoughts to the people of Christchurch.

I specifically want to acknowledge a community that, following the events of 15 March, I have had the privilege to get to know and to learn more about, and many of whom have become personal friends. I want to acknowledge the community for their courage, for the way that they have courageously conducted themselves, for their generosity, for always being so welcoming, and always being so loving in our communities. I especially want to acknowledge my constituent and my neighbour and my friend Adan Dirie and his wife Imbada. Adan and Imbada lost their three-year-old son Mucad on 15 March, four years ago.

Despite all of the grief and the sadness that caused and continues to cause, the family and the wider community continue to be so loving and so generous with all their time. This week, on Monday, they called into my office and presented me with some Somalian handcrafts that they thought would look nice on my wall. It reminded me, given that it was only two days before the anniversary that, even in times of grief, that it's a true measure of strength to continue to think of others. So salam alaikum.

The segue for me, really, is the concept of social justice, and as we've heard by virtue of that theme, St Peter's has a long and rich history of advocating for social justice and, as my colleague Glen Bennett mentioned, especially for the last, for the lost, and for the least. As my colleague Elizabeth Kerekere mentioned, this has been evidenced on several occasions by the submissions made to this House on bills before Parliament, and those submissions have traversed various select committees and various topics and various causes, but the one thing that they've always had in common is that they have been put forward to advocate for the people that need to be advocated for, and they have very strongly and very courageously and very succinctly and often quite concisely put forward those concepts of social justice.

So, what this bill does, as the Hon Grant Robertson introduced it as, is it essentially just removes the restrictions on the trust board's ability to distribute its income, and from investing its funds effectively for its intended charitable purposes. It reinstates the purpose of the trust board in the same manner as the original trustee did, which was executed many, many years ago now, and affords them, I suppose, the discretion to be able to do what they see fit within the realm of that trust document.

There are many legalistic and quite sort of straightforward changes that are made, but I think it behoves us tonight to remember, more specifically, the organisation that stands before us and has brought this bill to the House and has asked us to make these changes. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me, and I commend this bill to the House.

IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): It's a pleasure to take a short call on the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill. I think the contents of this bill have been very well explained to the House, so it really remains for me to talk about the select committee that the bill will come to. We've had all sorts of bills in our midst in the last few weeks, and this is now a church bill. We've had all sorts of other bills, so we do get a diverse range of things to do.

So I suppose a couple of comments I'd make on this is that, if you think about the last bill, we had a significant amount of money being made available to an organisation which then had to put it into a trust fund to protect it for future generations. The interesting thing for me about this bill, and I'm not for a minute saying it will fail in the future, but the reason they've got so much money now is because it's been so well protected in the past. I just hope that in the future these much more liberal allowances in fact enable it to be protected in the future. Because this is one of the few bills that come before this House that's actually liberalising an organisation to spend money or to use money for useful purposes, not the opposite. So I think that will be an interesting little discussion for the select committee to have.

But clearly it's been brought to the House by the Minister of Finance and his local list MP, Nicola Willis, and we can only hope that—well, I'm absolutely certain that it has been brought with the best intentions. I guess the interesting thing will be where the select committee gets to with its consideration of the bill. That's really all I need to say, because everything else has been said. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

SARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you so much, Madam Speaker. This evening I rise, as my colleagues on both sides of the House, to support the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill. As we're aware, this is a private bill brought to the House by the Hon Grant Robertson.

But before I begin, like my colleagues before me, as one of the Christchurch MPs, I just want to take a little time to acknowledge that today is, as we've heard, it's the day that we remember when Christchurch changed forever, when New Zealand changed forever. We remember those who lost loved ones, who lost family, who lost friends. Also I want to take a moment to remember the helpers, because we had so many of them in the community, those from first responders but also the heroes within the community, and also to commit to continue to fight for the inclusive, diverse community that we all love so much, and just to reiterate that hate has no home here in Aotearoa. Thank you for your indulgence.

I'm rising to support this private bill, as I said before, which intends to repeal the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Act from way back in 1927. This will fundamentally allow the trust board, as we've heard, to distribute up to 4 percent of the trust fund in any financial year, lend to the parish, and make additional distributions in certain circumstances, up to 20 percent in any financial year.

Of course, before speaking this evening, I spent some time looking at St Peter's church. As a Christchurch MP, I'm sadly not familiar with it, but I am really glad that I did do that before I rose in support of this bill, because it was a complete delight to me. I was raised as an Anglican by a very committed set of parents. My mother ran the Sunday school, and I went to a Catholic convent school for my entire education, and I was very lucky to have incredible, truly Christian role models throughout my early life. The church I knew as a child was one where real Christian values were practised every day, and I would describe those as love for your fellow humans, that we are all equal in the eyes of God; and a real sense of inclusion, the importance of inclusion of all, but of our rainbow communities, in particular; open doors—open doors to the lost; and a deep commitment to social justice.

But to be honest, I became very disillusioned, as I grew older, by the behaviour of many who called themselves Christians, of those who preach, for example, the prosperity gospel, which to me is the literal antithesis of true Christian values—the idea that you are loved more by God the more you have in terms of material wealth. As I said, I believe that to be the antithesis of Christian values.

I've had to see people claim to be Christian, but blame the earthquakes that Christchurch experienced on the sin of homosexuality, when those of us who have studied to any degree know that Jesus said precisely nothing about homosexuality in his teachings, and those who exploit their positions of power and authority by abusing people—adults and children—in the worst of ways.

So of course, I paused before I rose in support, and I looked at this church and I thought, "Wow, this is a church that's committed to social justice." And it actively does so, submitting on bills before the House: the Fair Pay Agreements Bill and Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill. A church that seeks to be open seven days a week, that is open to all. A church with rainbow flags inside the building, to remind our rainbow whānau that it is a place where they are welcomed and their identity honoured. So I'm absolutely delighted to play a very small part in helping St Peter's in its work to help others. I commend this bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): The question is, That the St Peter's Parish Endowment Fund Trust Bill be considered by the Governance and Administration Committee.

Motion agreed to.

Bill referred to the Governance and Administration Committee.