About AMAT
AMAT was registered in 1974 as a Charitable Trust. Under the terms of the trust deed, all monies received by the Trust must be applied for the purposes specified in the objects.
Trustees are responsible in law for the operation of the Trust although an executive officer manages the day-to-day affairs.
Given the highly unsatisfactory state of affairs in the field of abortion prior to the Trust’s establishment, an outpatient abortion service was a high priority for the Trust.
Its first clinic in Great South Road was forced to close in 1975 with the passing of the Hospitals Amendment Bill, so the Trust moved its service to a private hospital in Ranfurly Road, Epsom. AMAT pioneered abortion counselling and the training of abortion counsellors and made abortion available in New Zealand to all those entitled to it.
The Trust now provides an abortion service in Dominion Road, where pregnancy counselling and termination is provided by the Auckland Medical Aid Centre Ltd., a charitable company wholly owned by AMAT.
Prior to 1997, AMAT distributed surplus funds as charitable grants to various individuals and organisations to support their projects. Later, AMAT supported the establishment of a new Trust to manage an adoption resource centre to provide counselling information and resources for people affected by adoption, and a research institute focusing on the publication and dissemination of educational literature in the field of human reproduction.
The Trust is now active in promoting and sponsoring research and has since 1995 offered doctoral scholarships, originally through the University of Auckland, but now through the Universities New Zealand Te Pokai Tara. The scholarships are to support the development of new knowledge in the field of human reproduction.
Our Objectives
The Objectives of the Trust are:
To establish and maintain a comprehensive health and welfare service related to the human reproductive process and its control (whether by means of contraception, sterilization, abortion or otherwise) and to that end to establish, provide and maintain hospitals and clinics and surgical, medical, pharmaceutical, counselling and welfare services.
To arrange and conduct lectures meetings and classes and to publish and disseminate literature and to do all other things to educate the public in the factsof human reproduction and the human reproductive process and of all matters concerning reproductive health and well-being physical and social.
Legislation
The activities of the Auckland Medical Aid Trust are governed by legislation – various statutes, statutory regulations, and public and private acts available free via the Internet at http://www.legislation.govt.nz.
The Charities Act (2005) introduced the Charities Commission (a body for the registration and monitoring of charities in New Zealand), although subsequent amendments disestablished the Commission and provided for a Ministerial appointed Board with functions, duties, and powers relating to the registration and deregistration of charitable entities.
The Act is now administered by Charities Services as part of The Department of Internal Affairs.
The following are some of the main Acts of Parliament that establish the parameters for the activities of the Trust and its subsidiaries.
Trustees and Charitable Trusts
- Charitable Trusts Act 1957
- Charitable Trusts Amendment Act 1993
- Trustee Act 1956
- Trustee Amendment Act (No. 2) 1988
- Trustee Amendment Act 1986
- Trustee Amendment Act 1988
- Charities Act 2005
- Statutes Amendment Act (No.2) 2011
Education
- Education Act 1989
- Education Amendment Act (various 1989-2000)
- Education (Tertiary Reform) Amendment Act 2002
Adoption
- Adoption Act 1955
- Adoption Amendment Act 1987
- Adoption Amendment Act 1995
- Adult Adoption Information Act 1985
- Adult Adoption Information Amendment Act 1991
Abortion
- Abortion Legislation Act 2020
Privacy
- Privacy Act 1993
