Power Consumers Trust election: Voter turnout at 10% so far

Just over 10% of the 65,000 people eligible to vote in the Hawke’s Bay Power Consumers Trust election have lodged their votes since the ballot was declared open last week.

A public meeting last year during the Hawke's Bay Power Consumers Trust ownership review, with chair Diana Kirton (centre). She ends her term by rotation and is not available for re-election. Photo / NZME

The chair, Diana Kirton, says it’s a good start and she hopes at least “30 to 40 per cent” get their votes in.

Kirton became a trustee in 2002. She has had two stints of the maximum three successive three-year terms and is not available for re-election.

She had been disappointed with the low return in 2020 - 12,796 voted, representing 20.1 per cent of the roll and down a third on the 2017 poll.

The trust, formed in 1992, represents Napier and Hastings consumers in the area previously covered by the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board through ownership of Unison Networks, formed following the deregulation of the electricity supply industry in the early 1990s.

Consumers receive an annual payment and the trust undertakes other steps in the interests of the consumers. This year’s dividend of $260 per consumer is to be paid in November.

Voting documents have been issued to about 65,000 consumers since last week and postal and online votes must be received by 5pm on October 1.

Kirton’s fellow trustees – former Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott, electricity industry veteran Jeff Farnworth, former EIT council chair David Pearson, and barrister and former banking industry worker Kirsten Westwood - are all seeking re-election.

Arnott has been a trustee since 2017 and the other three have each served one term, extended by a year in review processes since their election in 2020.

The other nominees are electricity and local government experienced Aydan Chatterton, 2020-2023 MP for Tukituki and former Hawke’s Bay District Health Board member Anna Lorck and Regional Indoor Sports and Events Centre Trust chair and former Farmlands and New Zealand Breweries chief financial officer Craig Waterhouse.