To be a world-class indigenous-owned forestry business creating intergenerational value
To realise the moemoeā of our tūpuna by enabling the responsible use of our land for the benefit of owners and their descendants
Tikanga • Courage • Commercial aptitude • Being completers
Stewardship – Maintain exemplary control and stewardship over the Trust lands and taonga
Competitiveness – Maintain a competitive, profitable, sustainably managed, indigenous-owned forestry business
Development – Meet or exceed stakeholders’ expectations in its business development and delivery of benefits and services
Tikanga – Adhere to Ngāti Tūwharetoa tikanga and values
Governance – Achieve excellence within governance and employees
The Trustees must govern all the commercial and social responsibilities of the Trust in accordance with the Trust Order. Trustees are required to:
The Trustees are elected every three years, and all owners are eligible to be nominated. The most recent election took place this year. The Trust operates a rotation policy whereby four Trustee positions are vacated. Trustees who vacate these four positions may seek re-nomination and therefore re-election. The next election is due to take place in November 2019.
Chairperson
Deputy Chairperson
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Projects Manager
Trustees
Heemi Biddle
Judy Harris
Richard O’Connor
Mikaere Pitiroi
Charlotte Severne (Chairperson)
Tyronne Smith (Deputy Chairperson)
Jody Tonga
John Tupara
Tom Walters
Projects Manager
Tiwana Tibble
Trust Administration
Lake Taupō Forest Trust
Lake Taupō Forest Management
Directors
Bill Liley, John Van Der Leden
Managing Director
Geoff Thorp
The Weighbridge Company
Director
Judy Harris
Managing Director
Geoff Thorp
The Trustees declared a distribution of $0.75 million ($750,000). This was a taxable distribution. If you had not provided the Trust with your IRD number, the Trust was obliged to deduct tax at 33 per cent.
The distribution was paid in April 2017 to all owners with a valid bank account. The amount paid to registered owners was $420,000 or 56 per cent of the total distribution. The balance is held in trust as unpaid distributions until the owner is registered or provides updated bank account details. The Trust relies on owners to complete their successions to shares and to register and claim their distributions.
The Trust allocates $50,000 towards Kaumātua Health Assistance grants. The grants have been operating since 2006–07, and this year a total of $37,131 was paid to 191 owners aged 65 years or older.
The Kaumātua Health Assistance grant is worth a maximum of $300 per applicant per year. Figure 6 gives an overview of the types of purposes the kaumātua grant was used for during 2016–17.
Lake Taupō Forest Trust is contracted to Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust to provide administrative services. The services include coordination and maintenance of both Trusts’ share registers. This means that when owners who register with Lake Taupō Forest Trust are also owners in Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust, they are automatically registered with both Trusts. This also applies when a vesting order is received from the Māori Land Court changing ownership of shares.
Maintaining the register is important for ensuring that distributions, grants, forest access permits and communications reach owners and their beneficiaries.
This year saw the ownership list rise to 11,522, up from 11,457 on the previous year. Some 6,656 owners are registered, up from 6,568 on the previous year.
Once again, we encourage owners to register with the Trust and to contact us if they change their home or email address, mobile phone number or bank account details.
If you know any of the people in the downloadable table, or their descendants, please contact this office. Our complete list of unregistered owners is regularly updated and is available online at www.lrft.co.nz or at the Trust office in Tūrangi.
The Māori Land Court issues the Trust Order. Together with Te Ture Whenua Maori Land Act 1993 and the Trustee Act 1956, the Trust Order provides the constitutional and operational framework for all Trust operations. The current Trust Order was issued on 20 January 2016.
The Trustees’ duties and powers are set out in the Trust Order. The work done for the Trust must comply with the Order.
The enterprises permitted by the Trust Order are forestry, tourism or recreational development and other commercial ventures. This allows uses for the non-forest blocks to be researched and developed. Any new proposed developments are researched, analysed by the Trustees then referred to the owners in a general meeting before proceeding.
The development of economic opportunities must be consistent with the Trust’s core principles of kaitiakitanga, sustainable growth, owner benefits and professionalism.
All authorities for payments from Trust funds originate in the Trust Order. It sets out, among other matters:
The Trust Order requires that Trustee elections be held by postal ballot every three years. The Māori Land Court then considers those election results and makes appointments that accord with the owners’ wishes. The next election will take place in 2019.
The land blocks listed in the Trust Order are divided into three schedules with different uses and sources of income.
First Schedule
The First Schedule blocks were included in the Trust for afforestation. Most were suitable for afforestation and were leased to the Crown and planted. They are now gradually being released from that lease (see the Early Crown Exit section in the Forestry Report).
While some blocks and parts of blocks proved unsuitable for afforestation, together they contributed to the viability and environmental management of Lake Rotoaira Forest. As the first rotation is completed in the forest, the First Schedule blocks are being reassessed.
These blocks are the source of most of the Trust’s income, and their owners receive income distributions from them.
Second Schedule
The 12 Second Schedule blocks, situated around Lake Rotoaira, were vested in the Trustees for settlement of compensation and could not be leased or developed for forestry. The Trustees therefore ensure that the local and regional councils remit rates on these lands.
Third Schedule
The Third Schedule blocks are south of Tūrangi on either side of the Desert Road. They were vested in the Trust for the purpose of land exchange negotiations with the Crown in the 1980s, which came to nothing.
All these blocks receive rates remissions. Rangipō North 6C produces income from a quarry.
Any proposals for development of Second or Third Schedule blocks will be assessed by the Trustees under their land-use policy and referred to the owners of the block concerned.
The Trust has acquired four parcels of Crown-owned land, together known as the Crown Enclaves, which are adjacent to Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust lands. The lands became available through the Treaty of Waitangi Deferred Settlement Property process during 2013–14 and are a mixture of forestry, quarry and reserve lands. Discussions are underway with Ngāti Hikairo about returning to them one of the blocks, which contains the wāhi tapu known as the Huimako Cliffs.
This block was leased by Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust from the Waione Incorporation, sub-leased to the Crown and planted. In accordance with these arrangements, the Waione Incorporation receives a distribution proportionate to its land area in the forest. The Trust is pleased to have concluded discussions with the Waione Incorporation, which had agreed in 2015 to extend the lease to 2050 to allow a full rotation forest on the land and give the Trust a right of renewal for a further rotation. These productive discussions also resulted in Waione Incorporation agreeing to transfer their NZUs to the Trust.
A complete table of Land Blocks on Schedule 1, 2 and 3 can be downloaded here.
