Chairman's Foreword

We are pleased to present the Statement of Intent for Public Trust.

The theme of this year's Statement of Intent is 'creating our future' as Public Trust continues to build on the foundations laid out in the 2007/08 Business Plan.

During the year Public Trust has refreshed its Strategic Plan to enhance the focus on customers and market segments. The refreshed Strategic Plan gives us an overall roadmap, within that overview we have taken a portfolio approach to the projects in the Plan. This means that we have carefully prioritised the projects and allowed for the inter-dependencies between them.

The 2008/09Business Plan outlines the initiatives to continue the journey towards becoming a sustainable business based on achieving a high quality customer experience. The Plan identifies the areas of Public Trust's business that need significant investment in order to effect the change to customer centricity and to achieve enhanced levels of financial and operational performance that will sustain Public Trust into the future. Investing in operating capability improvement, particularly people development and process re-engineering, are central to the transformation.

The 2008/09 year will be a period of accelerating change at Public Trust that will impact on all areas of the business. There will be changes in organisation design, customer products and services, and positioning in the market place.

The investment that is required to give effect to the Strategic Plan means that Public Trust's core business financial performance, while improving over the period covered by this Statement of Intent, will during much of the period, be below the level that the Board considers is necessary for long term financial sustainability. The benefits from the investment will, however, begin to flow through into enhanced financial performance during 2010/11. Overall performance is enhanced by the write-back of forecast unrealised investment losses sustained in the 2007/08 financial year, from 2009/10 by the anticipated full funding from the Ministry of Justice for the programmes that Public Trust delivers to them.

In the longer term (i.e. beyond 2010/11), the investment in capability is projected to deliver improved after tax surpluses due to increases in revenues and market shares in key markets and segments. These surpluses will maintain Public Trust's financial strength in the longer term while meeting the objective required under the Public Trust Act 2001 to exhibit a sense of social responsibility. The benefits that emerge will lay the foundations for a dynamic, responsive and innovative organisation that will ensure Public Trust's sustainability.

Public Trust is mindful that as a Crown Entity it has an important role to play in contributing to Government outcomes, and in this regard, Public Trust's role sets it apart from its competitors in the market. There is a need for Public Trust, as part of the Statement of Intent, to describe the specific impacts or outcomes that it seeks to contribute to, and to describe the steps the organisation is taking to ensure it achieves its objective of operating in a socially responsible manner. This year's Statement of Intent describes in more depth the linkages between some of Public Trust's outputs and Government outcomes.

Public Trust has a long tradition of serving New Zealanders. We look forward with optimism to maintaining that tradition by ensuring all New Zealanders continue to have the opportunity to build and protect their assets and interests, now and for generations ahead.

Donal Curtin, Chair

Robin Hill, Deputy Chair