Returns reveal Horizons councillors’ financial interests

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: Judith Lacy
• Publication title: Guardian, The

It is the second year these annual returns of certain pecuniary interests have been required for local government elected members under an amendment to the Local Government Act

The returns cover from January 30, 2023 to January 29, 2024 and record members’ interests to provide transparency and strengthen public trust and confidence in local government processes and decision-making.

Horizons Regional Council has 14 elected councillors representing eight constituencies.

Palmerston North councillor and Horizons chairwoman Rachel Keedwell is a director of MWRC Holdings Limited. It is a council-controlled organisation and is 100 per cent owned by Horizons Regional Council. The company was formed in 2009 to own and manage Horizons’ investments.

Keedwell has a beneficial interest in the Keedwell Brown Family Trust and owns rental property in Palmerston North.

Palmerston North councillor Fiona Gordon has a pecuniary interest in Gordon Infrastructure, a facilities management and project management company.

She also has a pecuniary interest in Gordon Consulting. It offers resource management advice and services, facilitation and mediation services, project management, research and analysis, and report writing.

Gordon has shares in six other companies, including Tesla, Apple and Auckland International Airport.

She has a beneficial interest in JKB and J Taylor Trust.

Gordon owns a family residence in Palmerston North and is the beneficiary of a trust that owns a house in the city.

Palmerston North councillor and Horizons deputy chairman Jono Naylor is a shareholder of residential housing development company Flax Developments.

He owns a family residence in Palmerston North and an investment property in the city, plus an investment property in Tauranga.

Naylor is a self-employed consultant.

Palmerston North councillor Wiremu Te Awe Awe receives payment for “customary activities associated with the service delivery” of Palmerston North City Council.

Manawatū-Rangitīkei councillor Bruce Gordon is a director and shareholder of agricultural contracting, baling, cropping and cartage company Bruce Gordon Contracting.

He is also a director and shareholder of EB Gordon Limited, which manages and maintains the Dudding Lake motor camp and public area.

Gordon owns a farm at Marton, which is also used as a base for Bruce Gordon Contracting, plus a holiday home at Pauanui.

Manawatū-Rangitīkei councillor Gordon McKellar is a director and shareholder of McKellar Farmlands 2017...