Crown companies directors’ fees hiked – and some doubled

The Government has announced big increases to the fees paid to TVNZ’s chair Alastair Carruthers and board members – the same day the state broadcaster broke the news to staff of  50 more job losses.
It’s understood TVNZ’s directors will get a 41 percent increase from the $53,700 in fees they’re paid now, to $75,720 for the part-time roles. Carruthers, as chair, will see his fees increase to $151,440 in 2026.
The increases to directors’ fees at TVNZ, RNZ, Crown Infrastructure Partners, KiwiRail and 18 other publicly-owned companies were announced by the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises, Paul Goldsmith.
Talking to Newsroom, he acknowledges it’s a bad look on the same day TVNZ announced proposed redundancies, but says it is “ultimately up to the directors” whether they choose to accept the fee increases.
“The problem has been, there’s never been a good time to increase directors’ fees, and we’re left in a situation where as a group, Crown company directors are well off-pace in terms of their market value,” Goldsmith says.
“We decided that, actually, in terms of their overall performance, this is important – and that’s why we’re going to take the plunge and do it.”
Goldsmith says the failure to raise fees, for many years in some cases,  is creating a major barrier to attracting and retaining directors with the commercial skills needed for Crown boards.
The fees will be increased in two stages: once next year to about 85 percent of the market rate, then again in 2026 to about 90 percent. In the past financial year, Goldsmith says, the 22 companies generated revenue of approximately $6.3 billion on assets worth approximately $58 billion.
Unlike most of the other companies, TVNZ, RNZ and Transpower’s boards had already received fee increases last financial year. So their directors will get three consecutive large increases to their fees.
That’s a cumulative increase of 69 percent over two-and-a-half years for the TVNZ directors, and 75 percent for the RNZ directors
The RNZ directors go from $24,000 in 2022/23, to $29,000, to $35,640, to $41,930. Chair Dr Jim Mather’s fees rise in steps from $48,000 in 2022/23, to $83,860 in January 2026. Comparing apples with apples, that’s 45 percent of increases over the 18 months mandated by Paul Goldsmith.
The sharpest fees increase is at Crown Infrastructure Partners, whose directors will get a 104 percent hike – from $31,582 to $54,810 in two months’ time, and then to $64,480 in 2026 – but these are the first increases they’ve had since 2016/17. Chair Mark Binns’ fees will increase from $63,164 to $128,960.
Crown Infrastructure Partners has also had its responsibilities to finance public infrastructure projects dramatically broadened by successive governments.
The same is not true of TVNZ, which has shrunk in almost every respect since its directors’ fees were last reviewed. It’s lost audience, laid off staff, and its advertising revenues have gone through the floor. It’s paid a dividend to the Government only twice in the past 11 years.
On Thursday, executives met with most of the broadcast company’s 600 staff to discuss proposals for a second big tranche of redundancies. A net 50 jobs are proposed to be cut.
In total, directors of 22 agencies are getting fee increases. “Some of them are small entities, some of them are very large,” says Goldsmith. “And we’re fundamentally concerned about the performance of some of those companies.
“And part of the solution is attracting the very best quality boards that we can. I’m not being at all disrespectful about the current boards, they’re doing their best, but obviously pay is a relevant factor. And so the idea is to get a little bit closer to the market rates, so that we can expand the pool of people that are prepared to take up those roles.”
The Government isn’t funding the fees increases – that has to come out of the companies’ own operating budgets. Asked what he’d say to public servants facing redundancy while Crown directors get pay rises, Goldsmith said this was intended to improve the companies’ performance.
“It has been put off for far too long, and ultimately, the directors are paid through the entities, and it’s the performance of the entities that we’re most concerned to see improve. Somebody had to bite the bullet and do it. And we have.”
Another Crown company whose directors will receive big fee increases is understood to be KiwiRail (89 percent increase to $83,680). The chair and half the KiwiRail directors are being replaced after the fiasco of the iRex ferry terminal project cancellation, and the Aratere grounding.
Crown Infrastructure Partners, KiwiRail and Airways Corporation (83 percent increase to $59,620) haven’t seen fees increases since 2016/17. Four boards – AsureQuality, Kordia, Metservice and Quotable Value – haven’t seen increases since 2010.
Transpower has been under scrutiny over its botched handling of generation shortages causing power outages on the coldest night of 2021, and then the collapse of a pylon cutting electricity to much of Northland this year. The company says its directors’ fees will increase 57 percent to $85,520, and veteran chair Dr Keith Turner’s fees will increase to $171,040 – not bad for a part-time role.
Fees paid to the directors of Kiwi Group Capital, the holding company for Kiwibank and the NZ Home Loans Company, will increase 20 percent to $75,070.
The directors of Landcorp Farms, which is now branded Pāmu, will get 45 percent fee rises to $52,340, and newly appointed chair John Rae will enjoy a quick fee hike to $104,680.
Director fees for Education Payroll Ltd will increase 32 percent to $35,850 in 2026, and chair Naomi Ferguson’s fee will increase to $65,180.
There are eight other Crown companies whose directors are getting fees increases but which haven’t publicly disclosed the quantum, as Newsroom has requested. They are Animal Control Products, NZ Post, NZ Railways Corporation, Crown Irrigation Investments, N4L, Rau Paenga, NZ Green Investment Finance, and Southern Response. And ECNZ couldn’t be reached for comment.