Worth Richard: New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Worth Richard: New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:621;Page:16339] 
RICHARD WORTH (National—Epsom) 
: 
 It is probably fair to say that two of the great commercial names in New Zealand would have to be the New Zealand Insurance Co. Ltd and the South British Guardian Trust Co. Ltd. Those companies of course no longer exist. In the course of history they have been subsumed into the name New Zealand Guardian Trust Co. Ltd. We are here confronting a bill that National supports. It is a private bill that for some of the reasons the Minister Judith Tizard indicated is a somewhat unusual type of bill in a setting where this Parliament deals with four types of bills: Government bills members’ bills local bills and much less frequently private bills. Private bills are promoted by a person or a body of persons for the particular interest or benefit of that person or body of persons. The Minister was right to say that this type of legislation for the reasons she gave should not be encouraged. Here however we have that class of case where clearly it is appropriate to make an exception. 
The purpose of this New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Amendment Bill is to amend the principal Act of 1982—although the history of the two entities goes way back beyond that—really to do two things. The first purpose is to enable the company to transact business with its present parent company and that parent’s subsidiaries and related companies and the second purpose is to validate retrospectively those transactions that have already taken place in relation both to the present and past parent companies their subsidiaries and related companies. So I join with the Minister in hoping that this legislation will be passed with alacrity because it is clearly an unsatisfactory circumstance that transactions are occurring that may not be properly sanctioned. 
It was in 1982 that the New Zealand Insurance Co. Ltd which was founded in Auckland in 1859 and the South British Guardian Trust Co. Ltd merged to form the New Zealand Guardian Trust Co. Ltd. That entity became a wholly owned subsidiary of the New Zealand South British Group Ltd. There were a number of reasons why the principal Act was necessary and it is relevant to talk about those issues because this bill is an amendment to the principal Act. What was the principal Act about? I guess we could summarise four primary reasons for the legislation. First of all it was to amalgamate the trust and agency businesses of the merged companies and the transfer of those businesses to the new company; secondly the vesting in the company of all those appointments rights and duties that the merged company was to assume as an executor a trustee and a fiduciary; thirdly the empowering of the company to act as an executor of wills and administrator of the estates of dead people; and finally to include the company as a trustee company under the Trustee Companies Act of 1967. 
What happened in the course of history—and this is a matter of record—is that the New Zealand Guardian Trust Co. Ltd fell under the spell of one of the great underwriters of the world the Royal and SunAlliance Insurance Group plc of England. Then there has been the further change that has seen the Promina Group take a hold of the New Zealand Guardian Trust and become its current parent. The Promina Group is a big enterprise on any view of it. It is listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges and employs over 6700 people. It has about 210 offices in Australia and New Zealand and I understand that its combined gross written premium in its trans-Tasman business operations was A$1.458 million for the 6 months to 30 June 2004. So we are dealing with one of New Zealand’s largest insurance and financial services organisations. Its brands as I am sure members will know include companies like Vero Asteron Guardian Trust Tyndall Investment Management Vero Marine Insurance Vero Liability Insurance AA Insurance and certain other companies. 
I note out of interest that in the current stock exchange listing for Promina Group there is an indication of the strength of the company with the last sale of its shares being at 481c. The company has a price/earnings ratio of 8.48 percent. So perhaps it is a good investment. I confirm that the position of National is to support this legislation and I join with the Minister in seeking that the legislation be quickly enacted to make the changes the bill contemplates.