NZ Guardian Trust Company Amendment Bill

Three weeks ago on the summit of Tangi-te-keo, four thousand native shrubs and grasses were planted from the legacies of gifts administered by the Guardian Trust.

Tangi-te-keo, known also as Mount Victoria, was named so after the soul of Whataitai, flew up to the top of this hill in the shape of a bird and proceeded to tangi, to weep and mourn. It is a site of great significance to Te Atiawa, and so the grant of $36,500 from the Guardian Trust towards the cost of landscaping this area is one way of supporting the ongoing cultural heritage of this place.

From the coastal flaxes of Tangi-te-keo, to the Nikau Centre in Napier, the Guardian Trust plays an important role in maintaining and supporting people and places across Aotearoa.



The Nikau Centre is a programme to support young people who have found the prospect of mainstream education daunting, and require individualised and specialised ‘re-learning’ programmes.

The programme offers a second chance, an early intervention to guide young people into a future based on hope rather than being caught in a situation of injury, of neglect, of helplessness. It provides an opportunity for success, for young people to thrive.

Back here in Wellington, another field of work which upholds a commitment to health and wellbeing is being pioneered by the Wellington Asthma Research Group.

This Group has identified major differences in prevalence and severity between Maori and non-Maori regarding asthma prevalence and management. Their research activities have led the way for developing long term strategies for prevention and intervention.



Coastal flaxes; alternative education; asthma research – are but a few of the outcomes and opportunities provided by the New Zealand Guardian Trust Company.

I believe it is really important when we look at legislation such as this, to know the substance of the role and responsibilities the New Zealand Guardian Trust undertakes.

In effect, this Bill is but a paper exercise, to amend the 1982 Act in order to authorise the company to transact business with its new parent company, Suncorp-Metway ltd.

But in order to comment on whether this is a useful exercise or not, it is critical that we understand the context of the banking, insurance and financial services undertaken by this Company.

It is a company which has been around a long time – first formed in 1882, and in this year, its 125th anniversary, it is still doing pretty much the same line of business – taking care of the growth and protection of assets for its clients. And they are fairly significant assets too – in excess of thirty billion dollars of assets and investments are managed by their Corporate Trust team.

Inevitably New Zealand Guardian Trust works alongside Te Kooti Whenua Maori in the administration and care of titles and investments related to Maori land.

In order to do so, the Trust must work in such as way as to respect the profound spiritual and emotional importance that land has to Maori. In the Court of Appeal case, “Re Ham; Mahu v New Zealand Guardian Trust Co Limited”; the Court affirmed, and I quote:

“When dealing with Maori families the Court must pay regard to the strong attachment of the Maori to the land and to closely held deeply felt feelings within the family in that respect”.

The Bill we are debating today, therefore, cuts to the heart of so many issues of importance to Maori – education, health, land, conservation, and the ethic of kaitiakitanga.

The Resource Management Act specifies that kaitiakitanga means:

“the exercise of guardianship by the tangata whenua of an area in accordance with tikanga Maori in relation to natural and physical resources, and includes the ethic of stewardship”.

Mr Speaker, I have taken the initiative to explore the meaning of guardianship, of kaitiakitanga, of stewardship as it relates to this Bill, because I believe they are concepts worthy of supporting.

The focus for this Bill is very much about a basis for business transactions. In its simplest form, the 1982 Act authorised the Guardian Trust to transact business with its parent company, Promina Group Limited, and that company’s subsidiaries.

Twenty five years later, Promina Group became merged with Suncorp-Metway and so a result the New Zealand Guardian Trust has a new parent body – Suncorp-Metway.

Of course this is not a new scenario. Over the century and more there have been many previous mergers including with the South British Guardian Trust Company, the New Zealand Insurance Company, and this latest one.

There are two key issues that I want to raise about such a merger.

The first is to do with the work of Parliament. The New Zealand Guardian Trust most recently came before the House in 2004 and 2005 and I remember at that point debate around the value of this company having to basically come before the Parliament every time they entered into a change of ownership arrangements.

The object of this Bill is basically to rubberstamp a commercial transaction, and one has to ask whether it is a useful exercise for the Parliament to undertake when a simple change by Order in Council might suffice.

As such, we welcome the fact that the effect of this Bill is now to authorize the Governor-General, by Order in Council to amend Schedule 2 of the principal Act by changing the name without the need for legislative amendment whenever they have a new parent company.

The other point of interest I would raise, is simply to point out again, the continuing trend towards closer economic relations between Australia and Aotearoa.

The Promina Group is a major enterprise listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges and hosting over two hundred offices in Australia and New Zealand.

It has joined hands with Suncorp-Metway. Suncorp is Australia’s sixth largest bank and has some 450 branches throughout Aotearoa and Australia.

These are two big companies, and we do note the new combinations of risk and profitability that are being extended outside of our own domestic shores, making us move further towards a single economic market.

Inevitably we wonder how the indigenous people of Australia are involved in such a merger, and whether there is an opportunity for recognising these relationships in the discussion of this Bill.

We support this Bill going forward, and recognise the importance of doing so, in order that the legislation will most accurately reflect the current ownership structure for the New Zealand Guardian Trust.

And we support it also, in the hope that in another two years from now, if Suncorp seeks to branch off into other arrangements or the New Zealand Guardian Trust considers other options may assist them in enhancing the financial stability of their business, we know that they will not have to come back here for approval to do so.