Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill

on behalf of Dana Kirkpatrick (National): I move, That the Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill be now read a third time.

Today marks the final stage of a bill that is simple in its drafting but potentially transformative in its impact on the communities of Whakatāne, Kawerau, Ōpōtiki, and Kaingaroa.

Before I dive into the detail around what this bill is actually doing, there is a person who is not here this evening who deserves a huge amount of credit for the work that she has put in to get the bill to where it is today, and that is the local member of Parliament Dana Kirkpatrick, the member for East Coast. I know you’re going to give me a telling off, Madam Speaker; I can see it in your eyes—I can see it in your eyes; say less, say less.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): It was probably the shaking of the head.

But Dana Kirkpatrick has been the leader of this piece of legislation from day dot as the local member of Parliament. She’s done phenomenal work getting it to this stage, and to Dana we say thank you for your tireless advocacy on behalf of your local East Coast electorate and getting this bill here today to its third and final reading before the House rises.

Dana Kirkpatrick is proud to sponsor the bill on behalf of Trust Horizon and the people the trust was created to serve. Trust Horizon traces its origins to the electricity sector reforms of the 1990s. Established in 1994 as the Bay of Plenty Electricity Consumer Trust, it was created to ensure that the benefits of community ownership would continue to flow back to local people. Over time, it became the Eastern Bay Energy Trust and, more recently, Trust Horizon.

For more than three decades, the trust has been an outstanding steward of community assets. It’s distributed more than $50 million in grants and community investment, projects that have strengthened local communities, created opportunities, and improved quality of life across the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Yet despite that success, the trust has been constrained by a trust deed that limits its funding to charitable projects that can be classified as energy-related purposes. Those restrictions may have made sense in 1994, but they no longer reflect the needs and aspirations of the communities the trust serves.

I refer to the example used at length in the second reading of the trust being able to pay for solar panels on the sports club roof but not being able to fund fixing the roof itself. One of the most important pieces to understand is why the trust could not just apply a rebate to all electricity users in its region, which many people asked about. I think it needs to be explained that the charitable status of the trust means this was not possible. Widespread rebates do not meet the charitable test, despite what many people think, and so this avenue was simply not possible.

This bill broadens the trust’s purposes from narrowly defined energy-related activities to the wider concept of charitable purposes, while preserving the trust’s focus on benefiting the people of its district. It also establishes a sensible mechanism for future amendments to the trust deed, subject to High Court approval, removing the need for a future Parliament to revisit every minor change.

The need for this change is clear. Trust Horizon now holds assets worth more than $200 million, yet under its current rules it’s found itself increasingly limited in the range of projects it can support. Meanwhile, the communities of the Eastern Bay of Plenty face very real challenges in areas such as housing, education, health, employment, environmental protection, and community wellbeing. This bill allows the trust to respond to those needs.

Importantly, the bill is not about abandoning the trust’s historical mission. Energy-related initiatives will continue to be supported. In fact, they remain an important part of the trust’s work and identity. What changes is that energy projects will no longer be the only projects that are eligible for support.

When we look at the trust’s record, we can see why this change is so exciting. Trust Horizon has invested in warmer, healthier homes and community initiatives. It has supported education and skills development programmes for rangatahi. It has backed community facilities, marae, arts and cultural projects, environmental restoration, and healthcare-related initiatives. Over the years, its funding has touched almost every corner of community life.

In the past year, the trust provided funding to support the construction of a new wharekai at Ōmaio marae—excuse my pronunciation, Madam Speaker—helping strengthen a vital community hub. It supported social and healthcare services to help power 15 new affordable homes. It funded lighting and sound upgrades for the historic De Luxe Theatre in Ōpōtiki and supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education initiatives in local schools.

Through its community grants programme, the trust helped purchase an electric van for Waka Eastern Bay, improving transport access for those who need it most. It funded predator control technology for conservation projects around Ōhiwa Harbour. It established a Community Energy Contribution Grant fund that has assisted dozens of marae and community organisations with energy costs and supported Galatea School to extend the use of its swimming pool through energy-efficient heating infrastructure.

Beyond grants, the trust has also taken a long-term approach to community investment. It has invested in local solar development, supported innovation in environmental projects, contributed to housing initiatives, and backed economic development opportunities that create jobs and prosperity within the region. It has demonstrated a commitment not only to providing grants but to building a strong future for the Eastern Bay.

When an organisation with that track record tells us it can do even more if unnecessary restrictions are removed, Parliament should listen. The overwhelmingly positive response from the community—the 80 percent of people that I just spoke about that voted in favour from the local community for this—confirms that view. The trust engaged extensively with stakeholders, iwi, community organisations, and the public. The support received demonstrated that local people understand the benefits this bill can unlock.

I want to acknowledge the work of the Social Services and Community Committee. The committee carefully considered the bill, heard submissions, and reported it back with unanimous support. The committee process reinforced the conclusion that this is a practical, sensible, and community-focused proposal. I thank the trustees of Trust Horizon: chair David Glover; chief executive Derek Caudwell, who was here this evening in support of me—and a big thankyou to you, Derek, and to Jono Orpin-Dowell KC for his advice as well—and their advisers, submitters, community members, and all those who have contributed to this process.

Most importantly, I acknowledge the generations of people across the Eastern Bay who have supported and benefited from Trust Horizons’ work over the past 30 years. Private bills are often highly local in their focus. They may not affect the entire country, but they can make an enormous difference to the communities that they serve. This bill, to the Eastern Bay, is one of those measures. It respects the original intent behind Trust Horizon, it preserves the community ownership legacy created through electricity sector reforms, and it allows a successful local trust to better meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.

I also wish to acknowledge the Parliamentary Counsel Office. While private bills may be local in their effect, they are no less important to the people who rely on them. The expertise, guidance, and professionalism of the Parliamentary Counsel Office throughout the drafting and legislative process has been invaluable, and I thank them for their contribution.

Most importantly, I want to acknowledge Trust Horizon itself. David Glover and Derek Caudwell, their advisers, trustees, leadership team, and staff have shown considerable vision, commitment, and perseverance in bringing this proposal forward. It would’ve been easier to continue operating within the existing framework, but instead they have looked beyond the status quo and asked how the trust can better serve future generations of its own community. For more than 30 years, Trust Horizon has been a careful steward of community assets, investing more than $50 million back into the people and communities of the Eastern Bay of Plenty. From supporting marae, schools, environmental projects, housing initiatives, community facilities, and local economic development, the trust has consistently demonstrated a commitment to improving lives across the region.

This bill is the result of that same forward-looking approach. It reflects a desire not simply to preserve a legacy but to build upon it. The trustees recognise that the needs of our communities have evolved, and the trust’s ability to respond should evolve as well. Their leadership and determination have brought us to this point, and they deserve recognition for that achievement.

At its heart, this legislation is about unlocking opportunity, empowering communities, and ensuring that the benefits of community-owned assets continue to flow to the people they were always intended to serve. On behalf of Dana Kirkpatrick, the hard-working local MP for the East Coast electorate, she is incredibly proud to have sponsored this bill on behalf of Trust Horizon and her communities of Whakatāne, Kawerau, Ōpōtiki, and Kaingaroa. So, on her behalf, I commend the bill to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to join that member, Tom Rutherford, who has just taken his seat, in congratulating Dana Kirkpatrick for the work that she has done on this bill. Private bills and local bills usually do spring from that very important work of being someone on the ground in a community and understanding what the needs are. I commend Dana Kirkpatrick for that work. I also commend Dana for her work to get cross-party agreement on this bill, as is often the case with local and private bills. It shows how a local MP can bring other people from across the House around a local issue. Well done; it is an achievement for Dana to do that.

This doesn’t mean we don’t have questions about this bill. We are supporting it. It has been really stressed how important this bill is to a local community, but this bill sits in the context of a huge amount of change in the New Zealand energy system and what needs to happen. I think this bill really highlights the tangled situation we have when it comes to our distribution businesses in New Zealand. We have three categories of lines companies, as normal people would call them, or, as those in the sector would call them, EDBs, or electricity distribution businesses. But there are three distinct types of EDBs.

There can be private trusts, which exist to make distributions to consumers; there can be charitable trusts; and then there can be mixed private and charitable trusts. To make this even more complicated, what we are talking about tonight and what led to some of the questions in the chair becoming more complicated than they needed to is that the dividends policies of trust-owned EDBs can differ, as well. What we have is Trust Horizon owning Horizon Energy Group, including Horizon Networks.

I don’t expect anyone to be following along from that. My point is that we have an incredibly complicated and messy situation with what is one of the most important elements of how it is that we electrify New Zealand and we reduce bills for New Zealand households and businesses. This bill sits squarely in the context of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment being out at the moment for consultation around what we need our lines companies to look like in the 21st century, what we need to do.

Now, I don’t think this Government’s work is going far enough in terms of imagining what a 21st century New Zealand lines company ecosystem would look like. For example, we need to be considering if there is a requirement for a lines company to demonstrate that building poles and wires is the least-cost measure they can take, and that they have considered alternatives like non-network solutions, like putting batteries and solar in place before they just keep doing what they’ve been doing for 100 years, which is building poles and wires. When it comes to many of our rural upgrades, for example, or a number of our commercial or industrial companies, actually, poles and wires are not the least-cost option that should be followed.

I do not for a moment think this would be a reason not to vote for this bill, because this bill actually just brings Horizon Trust into line with many of its counterparts around the country. It does not result in Trust Horizon having an unusual purpose compared to other EDB-related trusts with charitable purposes that exist around the country. The opposite is, in fact, the case. Of the six EDB-related trusts with charitable purposes, Trust Horizon is the only trust that is limited to energy-related purposes. The other five trusts are for charitable purposes, broadly defined in a way that is analogous to that proposed in this bill.

If anyone is confused, I’m not surprised, and this is a big part of the problem: we do have this incredibly tangled situation. I think we need to ask ourselves, as a country: what do we need to invest in our distribution infrastructure to deliver low-cost electricity to New Zealand homes and businesses over the coming 50 and 100 years? Then we need to say: have we exhausted all the possible ways that we could be investing in our communities for cheaper power, for more resilient power, for power that we can trust and that we know best serves our community? I would be gobsmacked if any region of New Zealand can say, hand on heart, “We’ve got that covered. We’ve got all the money we need to invest in the infrastructure we need for electrification.” Simon Court asked some very good questions in the committee stage demonstrating that—what the requirements are of what we actually need to be reinvesting into those.

For me, that is what it comes down to—not just for Horizon Trust. I fully appreciate why Horizon Trust wants to make itself the same as the five others in the category that it belongs to, but as a country, we need to be thinking about: how do we do this properly and where does this bill fit within this? Now, of course, if there needed to be legislation that reorganised the way in which we required EDBs to do things—after all, there is a live consultation document—it’s not going to preclude us doing any of that. But we do need to be thinking, and this bill is a reminder of the very messy situation that we’ve got around our energy system: the way it’s owned, the way it’s operated, the way it’s held.

I know that there are incredibly good people up and down the country that are doing the best for their communities, and they do it with the best of intentions, but whether that is the way in which we can ensure that we have all the investment we need for the next 100 years is something we do, as a country, need to give thought to. I do think that local communities need to be incredibly involved in any decisions about their own electricity systems. They know where the pinch points are when the storm comes through; they know the areas where the power goes out—they know these kinds of things, and that is incredibly important. I’m not for a moment saying we shouldn’t be doing that, but we do need to take stock and ask ourselves: have we really invested everything we need to in the energy system we need for the 21st century?

That said, Labour is happy to support this bill, and I congratulate Dana Kirkpatrick for the work she has done on it.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT to speak in support of the Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill. I want to again add our congratulations to Dana Kirkpatrick for getting this bill through the House. As we’ve already heard, it makes a change to the trust deed to allow these broader charitable purposes for the trust in the Eastern Bay of Plenty while retaining the existing energy-focused charitable purposes.

I want to thank the Social Services and Community Committee for their work on this. Any concerns that ACT had, we got on the record through Simon Court at the committee of the whole House, and I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party, and, as I sit, I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Labour is pleased to support the third reading of the Trust Horizon (Trust Variation) Bill. This is a practical bill. It’s driven by the community it serves, and it’s been improved through the select committee process, as other contributors have mentioned tonight. The purpose of this bill is pretty straightforward. It gives the Trust Horizon more flexibility to support the people and the communities of Eastern Bay of Plenty, by widening its remit beyond purely energy-related purposes, while retaining its original focus on energy. That balance is important, and it’s one of the reasons that Labour supports the changes recommended by the Social Services and Community Committee.

The Trust Horizon has a unique history. It was established through the electricity sector reforms of the 1990s, and today owns the Horizon Energy Group, including the lines company that supplies electricity throughout the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Over many years, it has built up significant assets on behalf of the community. The challenge the trust faces is that its trust deed limits how those assets can be used, even when there are clear community needs sitting right in front of it. The district it serves includes communities facing real challenges. There are schools, community groups, marae, charities, and local organisations doing great work with limited resources. The trustees have looked at their roles and asked a simple question: if they have the ability to help more people, why shouldn’t they?

More than 80 percent of respondents in the community poll that they did supported widening and clarifying the charitable purposes of the trust. When you look at what the trust has already funded, you can understand why there is confidence in that organisation. We’re not talking about a trust that’s been sitting on the sidelines; we’re talking about a trust that has funded insulation and heat pumps, supported schools with energy projects—as has been mentioned—and provided assistance for community transport. There have been environmental initiatives, as well, and helping community organisations with power costs. That track record is very important. It tells us that the trustees understand their communities and understand how to invest back into them.

I also want to acknowledge the work that the select committee has done around this bill, and I commend it to the House.