Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill

Thank you. I rise to support the Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill. I want to say a few things about community energy trusts, talk a little bit about why there is an uneven distribution of them, and then make a few points about what could happen in that beautiful region of Whakatāne and the East Coast. I would like to say that I have not been at the Social Services and Community Committee, but I have looked at some of the submissions and I’ve talked to our energy spokesperson, Scott Willis, on this matter, as well.

Community energy trusts in New Zealand have a unique and exceptional role to play to end our national exposure to volatile international fossil fuel prices, to electrify our nation, and to deliver affordable and locally resilient power. Our vision is distributed, affordable, decarbonised power for all of us—think distributed, not Think Big.

I was very interested to hear Mr Rutherford speak, first of all, highly of Dana, which I would absolutely agree—Dana Fitzpatrick, who’s led this—

💬 Katie Nimon: Kirkpatrick.

💬 CELIA WADE-BROWN: Kirkpatrick—thank you. I’d also like to endorse his particular example drawn from the select committee process of saying it doesn’t make sense to insulate the roof, to put solar panels on top of the roof, and then to not be able to fix the roof itself. That’s very sensible. But what I’d like to draw attention to was that very eloquent speech about how that side of the House really supported local trusts with elected members being able to do what they thought was right without direction from Wellington. Well, it would be lovely if you’d just spread that to include elected members and councils, as well—but it does show that I was listening to that third point. We do support this bill, but we’d like to make it clear that, instead of just broadening the trust’s rule, it was very important to make sure that the energy-related purposes remained, as well as being able to do other things, because there is a lot of work to be done.

I’d like to say two things about energy trusts, in general, that relate to this bill. Here we’ve got Whakatāne and that area—Kawerau and so forth—having a really good trust that has kept its assets and is able to do a lot of good work and wants to do more good work. There are gaps around this country where there are no energy trusts, and I’ll come to that in a moment, but I also want to think of the ongoing legacy of Jeanette Fitzsimons—not Fitzpatrick; Fitzsimons—because it was Jeanette’s idea to have the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority so that we could actually have warm, healthy homes across the motu, and that legacy has endured a number of different Governments. The money has gone up and the money has gone down, but it’s still there, thank goodness.

In a cost of living crisis and a global energy crisis—and it’s worse than it was in the 1970s; not that many of you remember the 1970s—it does make sense to use the resources of Trust Horizon to enable a transition to a more local energy system that is also more resilient. It was very interesting to hear Minister Mitchell talk about resilience in emergency management and to have a real endorsement from around the House, but we do have limited resources, and I think that examples like Trust Horizon can really contribute to that.

Let’s refer to why we’re not fortunate enough to have such an energy trust in Wellington. Back in June 1996, Sue Kedgley and I campaigned against the sale of Capital Power. If we hadn’t sold all of Capital Power—not retaining anything for a community energy trust—we might have been able to look at Trust Horizon and say, “Yes, Wellington too.” But the council of the time, including, originally, an opponent of the sale of Capital Power—my colleague Mr Foster changed his mind and enabled the sale of Capital Power.

💬 Andy Foster: No, it’s because they changed the deal, unfortunately, Celia.

💬 CELIA WADE-BROWN: Well, you’ll have your time to speak, but that’s, I think, what the record shows.

💬 Andy Foster: No, I’m not going to spend that time, but you need to know a little bit more than that, because you don’t. You don’t know what you’re talking about, unfortunately.

💬 Hon Member: Oh, the mayors are fighting—the mayors are fighting. Take off the chains—you’ll work it. Which one is the ball; which one is the chain?

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Carry on.

💬 CELIA WADE-BROWN: I think we’ve rattled the chains quite enough! While you start off by opposing the sale of the asset and then you change your mind—despite this, we had a fantastic citizens’ jury—some of us are going to Helmut Modlik’s really interesting Re:shape conference on Saturday, which is talking about how we can hand over some decision making to the public—but we ignored collectively, at our peril, that very sensible citizens’ jury.

Finally, I would like to give a shout-out to the Community Energy Network, of which Trust Horizon is a member. The aim is to put healthy homes and community energy in the public spotlight to get community organisations talking and to inspire citizens’ engagement in our renewable transition—electrify Aotearoa, indeed. Thank you.

New Zealand First believes in community ownership, and I think that this debate demonstrates the value of assets remaining in community ownership. The bit that Celia Wade-Brown forgot is in the first part of selling Capital Power; council also sold the controlling management control, and that basically meant that what you had left was simply shares and not control of things. So I think she neglected that minor thing. But the Greens have never been able to adapt to any change. They just keep on doing the same thing that they always ideologically do. That’s the Greens for you.

This bill is common sense. All of those issues that have been filibustered about for ages here have been dealt with through the select committee. It brings Trust Horizon in line with the other energy trusts. It allows greater benefits across the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Finally, I’m just conscious that the next bill is the one that we really need to get through tonight. If we’re going to save the lives of New Zealanders this summer, we need to get the next bill through, so can we please get this one through as quick as possible? I commend this bill to the House.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I rise to commend this bill to the House. I’m very pleased I’ve had it go through the Social Services and Community Committee, which I chair. I thank everyone for all their hard work. It’s a brilliant bill. I congratulate Dana Kirkpatrick and everyone in her community. I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I too would like to rise to congratulate the member Dana Kirkpatrick in bringing this bill to the House and shepherding it through and getting it to a point that across the House there is agreement in this. But I will say that the actual committee of the whole House stage—and it’s not often that we have a member in the chair that doesn’t understand or hasn’t done the work on that bill, but answers so clearly in the answers in that committee stage. I’d have to say that that was very, very well done.

I found that stage actually very enlightening, because, as the member Megan Woods said in her contribution at the third reading, this is not easy to get your head around. This is a very complex system that we have within this country, and this bill has highlighted the complexities that are involved here. While Labour has supported this bill—and I think I’ve spoken on just about every reading of this bill—that does not mean that we accept that energy-related opportunities are exhausted in our regions. I think that that is really, really important. I think that, as the nature of energy supply is changing throughout the country and technology is changing, we see that there are more and more opportunities that come in this area.

What we do agree with is that this excellent, outstanding trust has had its scope limited by legislation up until this point, and the legislation that we are passing through the third reading here this evening is a signal that the trust can go further in their scope, and that has to be a good thing. It has been pointed out tonight a number of times in a number of the contributions around the other trust areas across the country. Trust Horizon is probably the most limited up until this point of what they can achieve, so it is good to see that what we are doing here in Parliament this evening is taking that a step further and putting some purchase back into the hands of those local trust members, meaning that this particular trust will be able to make a bigger difference for their local community.

I remember saying in the first reading, when you go on to the website of Trust Horizon, how impressive this trust is. I look forward to seeing what they can do now, once this piece of legislation has passed. They already—and we heard that from the member tonight in his third reading speech—have done some incredible work in their local communities. It is good to see the many variations of people in their district, and demographics, that they have been able to support. Well, now we’re giving them the opportunity to take this one step further, and to look at different ways they can help, but making certain that energy is still at the heart of many of their decisions.

As I said, I look forward to seeing where the trust takes this with their new direction that they’ve got from this piece of legislation tonight. Along with the majority of people in this House, I commend this bill to the House.

I want to commend this bill to the House, and say thank you to Dana Kirkpatrick—who can’t be with us in the House today—for shepherding this through. This is obviously very close to me in Tauranga, and I know this is going to have a very positive impact in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, an area of high deprivation. They have a trust there, Horizon, with significant resources and a narrow scope. That will open up, and it’s going to benefit sports clubs, marae, many other social and community programmes. This is a very good day for the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Well done, Dana Kirkpatrick. I commend the bill to the House.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Dan Rosewarne. I knew where to look this time!

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very pleased to take a call on this member’s bill. Congratulations to Dana Kirkpatrick, like everybody else has mentioned. I think it’s really important that the trust does ensure that it meets its core purpose of energy-related initiatives, but of course, this bill provides their ability to go out for wider community needs. In the communities of Kāingaroa, Kawerau, Ōpōtiki, and Whakatāne, 80 percent voted for this to be changed, and so I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a real pleasure to stand and take a call on the Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill this evening. We’ve heard some great contributions, and, at committee stage, too, the exploration of some of the complexities around both the context of the energy market in New Zealand but also the process of changing trust deeds like this one. The Trust Horizon charitable trust was established through the energy sector reforms under the Energy Companies Act 1992.

The thing that I really wanted to acknowledge in my contribution this evening is some of the amazing work that Trust Horizon does for local communities—some of the amazing initiatives that it supports, and the importance and the impact that this can have on the local communities. As we’ve heard, a lot of these communities are like so many in our country: communities that really are struggling with the cost of living and the challenges to be able to afford the basics at the moment.

The first one I wanted to single out here was really looking at the economic development impacts happening around the support of the Kawerau Enterprise Agency (KEA) Centre in Kawerau, which was established over 40 years ago, with the goal of stimulating new business in Kawerau, and just ensuring that the KEA Centre could be funded to be warmer, drier, and a healthier space for people to work and to get on with doing the important work that happens when businesses start up, when businesses can work closely together, share experiences, challenges, and what’s getting in the way of them being able to succeed. It’s great to see that Trust Horizon are able to support the KEA Centre to be an environment that’s going to be good and healthy and safe for people to be in, to get those businesses up and started.

The other thing that I wanted to look at here was—well, two others really. One was on this page here, which was the support of the Kiwi Trust—the trapping that they use in the Kiwi Trust to make sure that they’ve got predators under control. That’s by supporting New Zealand AutoTraps, which is a great innovative New Zealand company that creates fantastic traps that reset themselves. It’s an absolute game-changer, and it’s fantastic to see just the broad spectrum—or the full horizon, if you will—of support that the trust can provide to that community. It’s great to see that that been able to be progressed.

One that I really wanted to single out, because I think it’s so important—and we often find that, particularly in communities that don’t have access either to the funds or to the resources by virtue of not being in the major centres, often our rangatahi, our young people, miss out on the opportunities for taking those first steps into careers in our science and technology sector. There’s the STEMM support that we’re seeing that’s going into the Eastern Bay STEMM Capability Project with a grant from the Horizon Trust. All of these fantastic initiatives are supported by the trust, and, really, as others have, I wanted to single out and acknowledge the work of the local member Dana Kirkpatrick in bringing this bill into the House this evening, and, ultimately, in getting cross-party support to be able to support it, not only at this third and final reading this evening, but also to ensure that it was supported, and really robustly examined by a number of parties at committee stage. So I’m very happy to support this bill to the House this evening.

I’m really excited to see what Trust Horizon can do when this bill gets passed, so with that, I commend the bill to the House.

I commend the bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

Maritime Transport (Lifejackets on Recreational Craft) Amendment Bill

Third Reading