Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Simon Lusk: HB Power Consumer Trust trustees overpaid

By Simon Lusk
Hawkes Bay Today·
9 Sep, 2017 12:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Simon Lusk

Simon Lusk

Like most people in Hawkes Bay I do not pay much attention to the Hawke's Bay Power Consumers Trust.

I receive my annual cheque, which always makes me wonder why they pay by cheque when everyone else pays by direct credit, but beyond that I do not notice what they do.

This year I decided to take a look into what role the trustees took and what they were paid, mainly so I could make a comparison between them, our councillors and our DHB members.

Potential candidates often ask me about serving the community and one of the major reasons it is hard to get good younger people to run for office is the low rate of remuneration.

So I was surprised that the HBPCT members get paid a huge amount for a very limited role and very limited responsibility compared to our councillors and our District Health Board representatives.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Council election information evenings are always very clear. Councillors are not well paid and they have a huge amount of work to do. Many find council a full-time role. In Hastings the base salary for councillors is $41,805.

Councillors have to be in the community constantly as well as undertaking their formal role as councillors. They are given vast amounts of material to read, and are constantly have to make important decisions that affect our community.

Our DHB representatives do not have quite the same amount of work as councillors, but they have a huge responsibility for the governance of the highest spending organisation in Hawke's Bay. There are significant potential problems with DHBs, and often board members are used by a minister to protect themselves from the anger of their local community over poor provision of health services.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

DHB Board Members are paid $20,400 for what is an incredibly complex role. While board members do not have the time requirements of a councillor it comes with a large time commitment and a lot of responsibility. It is often harder to get good people to run for the DHB than it is to council because of this responsibility and the complexity of the role.

In marked contrast is the role of the Trustee of the Hawke's Bay Power Consumers Trust. Their role is not complex. It is not time consuming. They do not take the blame when the minister wants to pass the buck like DHB Board members do.

HBPCT trustees are paid $22,000. Their role is very straightforward. They attend approximately 15 meetings per year. They appoint directors. They approve the Statement of Corporate Intent. They receive the company dividend and decide what to do with it. They manage the ownership, reviewing ownership every five years. They attend an annual New Zealand Power Consumers Trust conference.

For all this they are paid more than a DHB member. They are paid half that our councillors are. Yet they do not have the responsibility of the DHB members for dealing with an incredibly complex issue, health spending. They do not have to make the huge time commitment that our councillors do.

The trustees will have a weasel-clause like an "independent evaluation" saying they are paid the market rates. Yet this is a community service role like the DHB and council, and in comparison to each of these organisations they are paid vastly more.

At this HBPCT election I will be voting for candidates who understand the value they provide to the beneficiaries of the trust and who will not accept the full amount paid to Trustees. I will be voting for those who pledge to review the payments made to trustees and benchmark these payments to the payments for councillors and DHB board members.

I will be doing this because I believe anyone who cannot see that they are seriously overpaid for a community service role like the HBPCT does not deserve to be elected.

They do not deserve to be taking money that could be returned to the community to line their own pockets, and they certainly do not deserve our vote if they use a weasel clause like an independent evaluation to justify how much they are paid compared to our councillors and DHB board members.

Simon Lusk is a Hawke's Bay-based political strategist and campaign manager. All opinions are the writer's and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

07 Jul 04:25 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

‘He’s smooth. He’s a practised thief’: Former club CEO had a secret criminal past

07 Jul 04:10 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

One lane reopens after diesel spill on Napier-Taupō road

07 Jul 04:03 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

07 Jul 04:25 AM

The winners will be celebrated at Toitoi Hawke’s Bay Arts and Events Centre on July 31.

‘He’s smooth. He’s a practised thief’: Former club CEO had a secret criminal past

‘He’s smooth. He’s a practised thief’: Former club CEO had a secret criminal past

07 Jul 04:10 AM
One lane reopens after diesel spill on Napier-Taupō road

One lane reopens after diesel spill on Napier-Taupō road

07 Jul 04:03 AM
'Massive cleanup': Fire damages Napier cocktail bar just months after opening

'Massive cleanup': Fire damages Napier cocktail bar just months after opening

07 Jul 04:03 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP