Bills

Spicer Cottages Trust (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:19): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Spicer Cottages Trust Act 1978. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:20): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce the Spicer Cottages Trust (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2025. The Spicer Cottages Trust was established in 1897 by Edward Spicer to make provision for housing for widows of religious ministers and supernumerary ministers in the Methodist Church. The trust was initially established in connection with the Methodist Church in Australia, now the Uniting Church.

The Spicer Cottages Trust Act 1934 to 1938, which was enacted so that the trustees could become a body corporate, was later repealed and replaced by the Spicer Cottages Trust Act 1978 to remove obsolete provisions and consolidate the provisions of the trust into one declaration of trust. Until recently, the activities of the trust involved holding and maintaining a series of cottages and residential properties for the purposes of the trust. However, in 2021 the trust sold its properties to the Adelaide Benevolent Society, conditional on the existing trust tenants being entitled to remain as tenants in the current dwellings as long as they remain able to live independently.

The trust is therefore no longer a property owner or a landlord and has advised that there are no ministers or spouses requiring accommodation. As such, the trust now wishes to support the community in other ways and has an interest in affordable housing and other general requirements, such as education, health care and other family support. To do so, the trust has sought to amend the act to allow for additional operational flexibility for the management and distribution of the trust funds to benefit people in need.

Amendments will also be made to enhance the administration and effectiveness of the trust. This bill will expand the objects of the trust to include to provide assistance to persons in poor, needy or difficult circumstances through the provision or assistance in the provision of affordable housing, or the provision of assistance with obtaining educational training, health or allied health services, or other support services.

It inserts various provisions in the act to allow the trust more flexibility in receiving and managing its funds and other property or assets. It updates the trust's administrative processes by allowing for a notice of meeting of the trust to be sent via post or email, for meetings of the trust to be conducted by telephone or videoconference, and for resolutions to be made by the trust where notice of the proposed resolution has been given to all members and agreed by a majority of members by email.

It changes the membership requirement of the trust by allowing membership of up to eight members, at least two who must be members of the Uniting Church in Australia or any church formed by a union of the Uniting Church with another church, and to allow a member to be appointed by a resolution of the trust.

It inserts a provision to provide that where the trust consists of fewer than four members, the South Australian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia may by resolution appoint a person as a member of the trust. It inserts a provision that the act is in addition to and does not take away from the Trustee Act 1936, and it makes other technical changes and updates the language of the trust. I commend the bill to the chamber and seek to insert the explanation of clauses in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Spicer Cottages Trust Act 1978

3—Amendment of section 4—The Trust

This clause amends section 4 of the Act, such that the Trust will now consist of up to 8 members, of whom at least 2 must be members of the Uniting Church in Australia, or of any Church formed by a union of that church with another church.

4—Insertion of section 5

This clause inserts a new section 5 into the Act.

5—Interaction with other Acts

Proposed section 5 provides that the Act is in addition to, and does not derogate from, the Trustee Act 1936.

5—Repeal of First Schedule

This clause repeals the First Schedule, consequential to the amendment to section 4 of the Act.

6—Amendment of Second Schedule—Declaration of Trust

This clause makes various changes to the Second Schedule, including expanding the objects of the Trust, expanding the ways in which the Trust may manage and apply its funds, providing for communication by email as well as by post, allowing for telephone or electronic conferences to be considered meetings of the Trust, providing for mechanisms for the appointment of members to the Trust, and modernising some of the language used throughout the Schedule.

Schedule 1—Transitional provision

1—Trust membership

This clause ensures continuity for the current membership of the Trust despite the changes made to section 4 of the Act.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M.A. Lensink.