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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
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Bills

The Uniting Church in Australia (Membership of Trust) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Debate resumed.

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (11:34): I also rise to speak today about this bill before the house and to go through some of the good work of the Uniting Church and its presence in my electorate. First, I want to take a couple of steps back and state that I did not understand sectarianism in any degree before I joined the Liberal Party. I am a Catholic boy through and through, having had a Catholic education from reception right through to finishing high school. In my eyes, I thought everyone was a Catholic. I thought that was the only Christian religion there was. But can I say that joining the wonderfully diverse beast that is the Liberal Party helped to open my eyes. As a German Catholic, I have never been called a filthy Mick—

Mr Duluk: It's Roman Catholic.

Mr KNOLL: Roman Catholic, thank you member for Davenport. I have never been called a filthy Mick, but it is a term that I now understand exists. I have been reading through John Howard's The Menzies Era and he talks about the issues of sectarianism and how Catholicism shaped the Labor Party for decades. It is quite interesting to see that there was a time when these things were controversial. It is also a happy coincidence that today is St Patrick's Day. It is a fantastic day. I notice a lot of green in the house, and not just because this is the House of Assembly; I see a lot of green ties and green shirts and I think that is a great thing.

Today also happens to be my wedding anniversary. It always makes it very easy to remember when I see photos of shamrocks and people in green hats on Facebook. I say, 'Okay, it's time to buy a bunch of flowers,' which I did today.

An honourable member: Green?

Mr KNOLL: They were green and white flowers, that's right, all very appropriate. I would like to thank my wife for her forbearance. She has so far served eight years of her life sentence without parole. She is a beautiful woman who has looked after me and shared my life for a long period of time.

Members interjecting:

Mr KNOLL: That's right. As I bring it back, everybody with a passing interest in the electorate of Schubert will comment often about its strong Lutheran heritage. Some say it is the spiritual, if not practical, home of Lutheranism in Australia, but what is interesting about Schubert is that it is a bit more Christianly diverse than that. Certainly Lutherans are the largest group, with 25 per cent or about 8½ thousand worshippers in the electorate. Anglicans come in second, with about 3,800, then we lonely Catholics come in with about 3½ thousand. Can I say that for our 3½ thousand worshippers we have only one church in Nuri versus about 25 Lutheran churches that exist across the Barossa for the Lutheran population of 25 per cent. However, we worship in our beautiful, modest little 1960s simple brick church with Father Mark Sexton, who does a great job. Then comes the Uniting Church, with just under 3,000 followers. It does make up a larger proportion of my electorate than I would have thought and it also probably has double the population compared with the rest of the state.

The churches' main populations are in the towns of Angaston and Tanunda, which share service times and resources, Nuriootpa shares its service time with Truro, which is in the beautiful electorate of Stuart, and they also have smaller townships of Williamstown, Mount Pleasant and Sandy Creek, which are smaller congregations. But what I liked, and this has very much been my experience with the Uniting Church in Schubert, is that on each of the congregation websites there is a warning: that upon coming to a church service you will be greeted by a warm handshake and a smile as wide as the surrounding countryside. I think that is a beautiful attitude and certainly one that I have experienced in my time as the member for Schubert.

Whilst small in number, these congregations are strong in faith and community spirit. There is also a church building at Greenock which, since 2007, instead of having congregational services, operates as an outreach program called Greenock Connections. Greenock Connections has a part-time coordinator and, as is usual in the regions, a willing and dedicated army of volunteers running community activities, such as a coffee shop, children's activities and a specific bike-friendly program that encourages primary school students to ride with their parents.

The previous member for Schubert, in one of the sage morsels of wisdom that he bestowed upon me when taking up this job, said, 'Stefan, whatever you do, don't upset the pastors. I wonder whether or not, in his history, he may have, being the strong Methodist that he was, but I took his advice. On getting elected to parliament I got a list together of all of the pastors, reverends, priests and fathers in my electorate and brought them all together to hear their issues and to catch up with them and to build a bit of a connection and a relationship. What really struck me—something that I did not think would happen—is how connected they are to their communities, and the Uniting Church is certainly very much a part of that.

They are at the coalface dealing with a lot of family issues, dealing with heartache, death, birth, marriage, and the whole life cycle that ties into a person's life experiences through the eyes of church clergy. They were very good at being able to help me identify issues that exist in Schubert, and I am extremely grateful for that. I am especially extremely grateful to a beautiful woman called Reverend Christine Manning, who is the local reverend for the congregation known as the Barossa Uniting Churches. I have met Christine on a number of occasions, either at ecumenical services to mark the ANZAC centenaries and the centenary of the First World War last year or when she has come into my office. It is fantastic to see Christine is so much a part of her Uniting Church community but also a part of the broader Schubert community. For that I would like to thank her.

Deputy Speaker, I have become very much enlightened about the workings of the Uniting Church in Schubert and also about Christian churches and Christian life more broadly within Australia and its history. Thank you very much for the time to make this contribution.

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (11:41): Top of the morning to you, Deputy Speaker, on this St Patrick's Day. I note that St Patrick was born in Great Britain, and he was venerated by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and also the Anglican and Lutheran churches. It is fitting that we acknowledge him on this special day today. I also rise in support of the bill and, like the members before me, I thought it would also be a fitting opportunity to talk a little bit about the Uniting churches in my own electorate.

As we have heard, the bill was introduced by the Attorney-General on 11 February, and it removes the provision which requires that a person over 70 has to retire as a member of the Uniting Church in a property trust. This specifically allows persons who turn 70 to continue to serve as trust members. We have heard that the Uniting Church act was passed in 1977 to make the relevant alterations to state law when the three churches—Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian—amalgamated. It was obviously necessary to make it clear that the churches had the right authority to unite. We heard earlier how the act also established a trust to hold all of the relevant property of the then new Uniting Church. The deputy leader also alluded to the speech that was made by the attorney-general at the time, Peter Duncan, on 6 April 1977. At that time, there was a 70-year age limit placed on members of the trust.

A number of points are raised in this amendment, but firstly I would like to say that 70 is certainly the new 60. For many people, I have learnt, life begins well into retirement, sometimes around the age of 70. I would like to draw the house's attention to some of the churches in my electorate and how they relate to this bill. We have many churches of this denomination in Hartley, namely, the Campbelltown Uniting Church, the Morialta Uniting Church, and the Kensington Gardens Uniting Church.

The Kensington Uniting Church's website alludes to the fact that many of their followers are perhaps more mature than those of other churches. They are a wonderful little parish. They are fantastic for the community, and they offer a range of worship and faith education services, and pastoral care. For many years they have offered support to children, young families and young adults, and social justice. They have a hall which has been used, I believe, as a community centre in the past. They are quite a wonderful little parish and for them I think it would certainly be relevant to at least lift this threshold so that, if members over the age of 70 wish to serve in this capacity that we are talking about, they are able to do so.

Then there is the Campbelltown Uniting Church, ably led by Reverend Douglas Monaghan. He is a wonderful gentleman and, let me just say, you could never meet a more warm, accepting and tolerant church. They are accepting of a wide, diverse range of people, they have a wonderful community focus and they also engage in many outreach activities. They have members of their church who are over the age of 65 and well into their 70s, so for them, too, I think this bill is certainly appropriate.

Then we have the Morialta Uniting Church, which was formed when Magill, Finchley Park, Newton and Rostrevor churches united to form one congregation with two worship centres at Chapel Street, Magill and Bonvue Road, Rostrevor. They are also a fantastic church led by Reverend Steve Thompson. This church is a bit different. They are a little more progressive than most churches of the Christian faith, you could say, but they certainly pride themselves on being committed to providing places where people are cared for, where they are nurtured, where they are sustained and they are committed to the care, protection and safety of all people, especially children and young people. There is a beautiful community garden across the road from that church so they offer a wonderful service to the community.

I have always felt extremely warm towards not only that church but all the Uniting churches in my electorate, and I think this bill is quite appropriate. At the moment section 11(4) of the act, as we have heard, states:

No person who has attained the age of seventy years shall be eligible for appointment as a member of the Trust.

With our current values, it is relevant that this bill amends the current act. It is a little outdated and our values have certainly changed. People are living longer and people are doing more in their retirement so it is only natural that these sorts of laws are amended to reflect the greater wishes of the broader community. I think it is much more in line with community expectations that we move this bill and, accordingly, I commend it to the house.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (11:47): I rise today to make a contribution and indicate that we support the bill to amend The Uniting Church in Australia Act this year. The amendment bill was instigated by the Uniting Church and it is a bit unusual in that it is a hybrid bill and, ultimately, goes to committee as a result. I have sat on a hybrid bill committee in the past. Interestingly, it was to do with the amendment to the Prince Alfred College constitution which ultimately relates very succinctly back to this bill as well.

The original act, as has been mentioned, that established the Uniting Church in Australia was enacted back in 1977, and they would have been interesting times no doubt. In a way, I was part of those times because I was at a Methodist school and, of course, we lived through that not knowing the great legal and theological debates that were going on behind closed doors, no doubt, between three significant non-conformist Protestant churches in this state. The Congregationalists, the Methodists and the Presbyterians managed to come together and it could not have been easy because, as I said, there would have been many hurdles, many late-night meetings and, looking back at the original legislation, it is quite a piece of work. The history of the various churches in the state has been well documented by the member for Hammond and other contributors today.

It goes without saying that those three churches (the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians and the Methodists) formed a significant body of the South Australian population from the very early days. The member for Hammond mentioned that there was a Methodist Church service as early as January 1837, which of course was just a month after the first landing down at Glenelg. The Methodists got underway very quickly, and the others would not have been far behind, no doubt.

When copper was discovered, first at Kapunda, then at Burra and later in the Copper Triangle, lots of Welsh and Cornish came to South Australia, particularly to take part in that mining boom to mine copper, and they were essentially Methodist. Add to that the Scots, who were Presbyterian, and the Congregationalists—I am not so sure where they fitted in; they would have been a group of fewer people. They were all very much a part of the early days of this state.

As I said, I lived through those times. When I was there, Prince Alfred College was a school of the Methodist denomination. In 1977, when I was in year 11 (I am giving my age away here) it was under the Uniting Church. We did not see a lot of difference. The school colours stayed the same, as did the school uniform, but I remember that we had a new hymn book. We moved from The Methodist Hymn Book to The Australian Hymn Book.

Mr Duluk: The same Wesleyan hymns, though.

Mr TRELOAR: They still sang Wesleyan hymns for the most part, but not all, member for Davenport. There was a time when I could sing all those Methodist hymns without the hymn book; I am sad to say I cannot do that anymore. We do commend the bill, which, in essence, attempts to change the constitution for the fact that there is a 70-year age limit placed on members of the trust of the Uniting Church of Australia.

As has been mentioned, 70 has become the new 50, 55, 60 or whatever it might be. It is not consistent with public policy at the moment. It is not consistent with public sentiment to have 70 year olds forcibly retire from their positions. We all know that, at 70, many have good health and great experience, are still very active in their communities, and can still make a great contribution. The Uniting Church has recognised this and seeks to amend its constitution to reflect that.

Others have touched on the work of the churches within their communities. I do not know, off the top of my head, how many Uniting churches there are in the electorate of Flinders. I would suggest that, at one time, almost every little community built a Uniting Church. When I was growing up in my hometown of Cummins, there were four traditional churches: a Catholic Church, an Anglican Church, a Lutheran Church and a Uniting Church.

In fact, my parents were married in the Cummins Methodist Church, as it was. Those four denominations made up the bulk, I think, of the South Australian community, particularly the rural community, for a good part of our state's history. An interesting place, Cummins; we have six churches now, and one hotel. I am not quite sure what that says about the place. It says something—

Mr Pederick: Bible belt.

Mr TRELOAR: 'Bible belt'—maybe, member for Hammond. We commend the bill. I congratulate the Uniting Church on its foresight and its efforts to engage everybody within its umbrella.

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (11:53): I will keep my remarks quite brief, because I do know that the Deputy Premier wants to continue on with the bold legislative agenda for today. The Uniting Church bill which is before us provides the opportunity to reflect on the role of the Uniting Church in South Australian communities broadly, as well as the significant role churches of all denominations play in shaping, supporting and developing the communities which they are part of.

There are three Uniting Churches in the seat of Bright: at Hallett Cove, Seacliff and Brighton. All play important roles in their respective communities. The Brighton Uniting Church is led by the Reverend Dr Graham Vawser, and the Seacliff Uniting Church is led by the Reverend Peter Moss. In Hallett Cove, we recently welcomed a new minister at the Uniting Church and farewelled the Reverend Craig Scott and his wife, Sandra, who have dutifully served the community for many years.

The Reverend Scott's tenure at Hallett Cove Uniting Church was one characterised by committed community service even in the face of significant personal challenges. In 2013, Reverend Scott was diagnosed with lung cancer and endured the difficulties of the treatment for that disease, which he ultimately overcame. I wish Craig and Sandra well for their future, and thank them for the service that they have given to the community for many years. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Pastor Esteban Lievano and his wife Kemeri to their roles in the church.

I have personal experience of the good work that the Uniting Church does beyond the church buildings in its communities, particularly through the organisation of Resthaven, the church's aged-care provider, which my wife worked in for four years. It is an excellent example of the influence that church-based organisations can have in the service sector within our communities, often showing that they can stretch the public dollar quite a bit further than government institutions might be able to and certainly provide a very significant role within the service sector.

We often hear comments about the need for separation of church and state, but I believe that sometimes this can be a bit overplayed and has the potential to underdeliver for the South Australian community. While obviously we do not want churches exerting undue influence over political matters, there is something to be said for the church and state working together for the betterment of our communities. Churches often have strong links into areas of need in our communities, and political leaders can connect with churches to tackle these needs. Political leaders enjoy a unique role where we have connections with many organisations in the areas we represent and can often join the dots supporting churches to make the connections that they require to address need.

The member for Mitchell and I work together to host a twice-yearly church leaders' breakfast in which we bring together over 40 church leaders and school chaplains to eat, connect, talk, and understand each other's priorities. There is no agenda for these events, no political overtures; quite simply, we provide a forum in which people who do similar work serving our community can build relationships. It is a good event and a good example of the church and the state working together in an informal and successful way. Politicians should not be afraid of working with churches to meet their communities' needs and, similarly, churches and church leaders who balk at connecting with local community leaders are equally at fault. We can strike an appropriate balance here, and we should be endeavouring to do so.

I just want to take a moment to provide some insight into some of the great community work that the churches in my community are undertaking at the moment. I note the phenomenal work undertaken with Edge Church International, which serves the southern suburbs and which is in the member for Mitchell's electorate, but which is a catchment which stretches well into Bright. This church's community-based activism changes lives on a daily basis and I commend their upcoming event Ride for Hope, to be held on 9 May 2015. This event aims to raise $1 million for WorldVision, Transform Cambodia and the Childhood Cancer Association in one day, an example of the impact a church can have when they cast a vision, connect with their community and energise people to be part of something.

Other churches in my electorate that I would like to mention include the Hallett Cove Lutheran Church, led by Pastor Kevin Wood, and Hallett Cove Baptist Church, led by pastors Richard Jensen and Carolyn Atkinson. Both churches, which are side by side on Ragamuffin Drive at Hallett Cove, are about to see their precinct reactivated with the opening of the new Cove Civic Centre and the creation of a wonderful community plaza connecting the two churches with the new community centre, library and business enterprise hub.

There exists a great opportunity for these churches to connect with their community through this new facility and through their shared-use car parks, open spaces and plaza area. I look forward to working with the Hallett Cove Lutheran and Baptist churches as they work to maximise their outreach activities with the development of the community centre. Both churches are already involved in many community activities, including the incredibly successful annual carol service of combined churches held at Pavana Park at Hallett Cove.

The local Catholic Church diocese, led by Monsignor Ian Dempsey, has campuses at Hallett Cove and Brighton. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the Men's Shed at Brighton Catholic Church, following an invitation from parishioner and Men's Shed member Brian Skeates.

The Men's Shed is yet another example of the brilliant community outreach that churches can develop and the important sense of community that they can build. They are a group of 20 or so men who meet each Friday, some with a church background, some without. They have spent the last couple of years working to redevelop the church's memorial garden, which is now a fantastic reflective space within the church precinct. After they finish their work, they spend time chatting and enjoying fellowship in the shed, which includes a delicious barbecue on the first Friday of each month.

Churches are not perfect. They will make mistakes and often will end up in the headlines for the wrong reasons—quite like politicians, in many examples, I note. But they are vital institutions within our Judaeo-Christian heritage, and they have a lot to give. Their activism and ability to build community should not be underestimated. They have opinions which we as political leaders should be attuned to. We should work alongside churches, building up what is good about them and giving them the confidence to work with us.

The Uniting Church stands as a symbol of what can be achieved when churches come together. In the case of the Uniting Church, this coming together was in a very formal, structured amalgamation but, regardless of the fashion in which this occurred, the Uniting Church is an enduring example of community action and the ability to impact many hundreds of thousands of South Australians throughout its history. I commend the legislation to the house and indicate my willingness to support it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the minister, it is unfortunate that my being in the chair today prevents me from mentioning my own excellent Uniting churches in Modbury and Para Vista and also, in passing, that Muriel Matters was a strong Methodist. Minister.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (12:01): It is a shame, Deputy Speaker, that you were not able to refer members to those matters. I am overwhelmed by the support that has been received by this bill in the parliament. It would normally be my style to make some sort of summary of the matters that have been offered, but they are so comprehensive and so all-encompassing that any words I might offer would pale in comparison. In recognition of that fact, I would say nothing, other than to say that I move that the bill be now read a second time.

Bill read a second time.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Based on the precedents established by the house, the consistent application of the joint standing orders and the principles that guide the consideration of such bills, I rule officially the bill to be a hybrid.

Referred to Select Committee

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (12:02): I move:

That the bill be referred to a select committee pursuant to joint standing order No. 2.

Motion carried.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: In order that we can hear more of the interesting matters we have heard of already this morning, I move:

That the committee be appointed consisting of the member for Giles, the member for Hammond, the member for Kaurna, the member for Hartley, and the mover.

We have not yet heard from Mr Hughes, but we have heard from Mr Pederick. I am hoping to hear from Mr Picton, but we have heard from Mr Tarzia.

Motion carried.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Furthermore, I move:

That the committee have power to send for persons, papers and records, to adjourn from place to place, and that the committee report on 6 May.

Motion carried.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I move:

That standing order No. 339 be and remain so far suspended as to enable the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence presented to the committee prior to any such evidence being reported to the house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: An absolute majority not being present, ring the bells.

An absolute majority of the whole number of members being present:

Motion carried.

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