Giles Pearson: Where next for HB Power Consumers Trust?

Giles Pearson

Recently I attended the AGM of the Hawke's Bay Power Consumers Trust in Napier.

The trust is our Hawke's Bay community entity that owns 100 per cent of the shares in Unison.

In turn, Unison owns and runs the power distribution network in Hawke's Bay, as well as in Taupo and Rotorua. The company you buy your power from (e.g. Contact or Trustpower etc) pays Unison to get the power to your door - so in the end you're paying Unison via your power retailer.

As power consumers in Hawke's Bay we own Unison, and participate to elect trustees to represent us on the HB Power Consumers Trust every three years.

Unison is a seriously big community asset. It might be worth about $750 million. It made a profit this year of $40m after tax. At the trust's AGM I identified just seven actual power consumers who were not also Unison employees or trustees. Seven! It seems such a small number out of 59,000 consumers. Only two questions were asked of the trustees we elected. It felt like no one cares or is interested in the potential Unison has for our community.

Unison has declared a dividend of $12.7m up from $9.7m. All power consumers will get a cheque of $200 shortly - great news for us consumers. I did wonder however if $12m is a fair share of the $40m profit? I asked this question at the AGM. Should consumers be asking for a larger dividend?

The next question is whether the model of distributing all the dividend to power consumers is the right one?

As an example nearly $3m each year could be available to support our hard working local charities and community groups if $50 per consumer from the growth in dividends used to support them.

Many of us are involved in charities and clubs that constantly struggle for funds. This could make a significant difference those groups and most certainly for the people that they serve right here in our community.

The pool for charitable funding continues to shrink. Locally each year Lotteries distributes about $1.4m, Eastern & Central Community Trust about $1m, and even the Gaming Machine Trusts are only in the region of $6 to $7m. So $3m from the Power Trust would make a huge difference. Even more as dividends from Unison rise.

Quite rightly some people will say the Power Consumer Trust distribution cheque makes a big difference to some families, but did you know that of the cheques sent out each year around 1500 are never banked? It would be a fair bet some of these are meant for those same struggling families, who have moved on to another address before the cheque arrives.

It's a delicate balance, but channelling some of the distribution to the charitable sector will do more to help those in need. You only need to read this paper to see how badly this extra resource is needed.

Any change would require public consultation so nothing would be done behind closed doors. Let's start the discussion and think about how an incredible asset like Unison can play its role in supporting Hawke's Bay to thrive.

Take a look at the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (www.tect.org.nz) for a model where a portion of their dividend is available to charities in the Bay of Plenty via a contestable and open process, whilst their payments to power consumers are higher than those in Hawke's Bay.

The elections for trustees of the HB Power Consumers Trust are coming up soon. Take some time to think about whether the current model needs to change. Look for trustees who recognise the need to communicate more effectively with consumers, ask for the highest dividend, and want to have a discussion about whether the distribution model should change.

Let's engage in the conversation - you never know where it could take us!

Giles Pearson is a chartered accountant, director of Accountests, trustee of Hawke's Bay Foundation and formerly 18 years a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hawke's Bay. He is standing as a candidate in the Hawke's Bay Power Consumers Trust election.
Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz