They said the case will be a critical test of whether regional communities can hold national infrastructure operators to account when failures happen.
Transpower and Omexom each said they were unable to comment while the matter was before the courts.
The Transpower pylon at Glorit near Wellsford collapsed in June after an unsupervised Omexom contractor removed all the nuts from three of its four legs during routine maintenance.
The incident left 180,000 residents and more than 20,000 businesses without power for multiple days.
Business losses have been estimated by various commentators at up to $80 million.
Transpower accepted subsequent investigation findings that the collapse was “entirely avoidable” but did not admit legal fault or a breach of the Electricity Industry Participation Code.
While the Electricity Authority initially moved to prosecute Transpower, the authority dropped its complaint in May this year after an international expert concluded the company’s systems met good industry practice.
Transpower maintained it had no mechanism to reimburse commercial losses. Instead, it and Omexom jointly contributed $1m to a regional resilience fund administered by Northland Inc, and intended to support long-term community projects.
The iwi leaders pointed to the value of Northland’s Māori economy, which a 2023 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report put at more than $10 billion, spanning primary industries, manufacturing, construction, retail, services and hospitality.
Tomorrow’s court hearing will determine whether the case should proceed as opt-out or opt-in.
Burkhardt and Glavish say an opt-out model is essential to ensure all Māori businesses across Northland – many remote, under-resourced and digitally isolated – are not shut out of the legal process.
Under an opt-out model, affected businesses are automatically included in the class action unless they choose to remove themselves. The defendants, Transpower and Omexom, are seeking an opt-in model, which would require each business to proactively sign up to the claim.
Glavish and Burkhardt’s affidavit argues an opt-in approach would unfairly disadvantage Māori businesses in isolated communities, many of whom may not be aware of the case or able to navigate the sign-up process.
Glavish said, “When infrastructure of this scale fails because of negligence, there must be consequences. We need to lift the standard of accountability nationally, so this never happens again”.
Burkhardt said, “We talk about deliberate investment in Northland – in our people and our infrastructure. What happened here was the opposite. It reflected complacency and lack of care.
“This is about justice, but it’s also about future-proofing.
“Northland cannot afford another outage like this – and neither can this country.”
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and the East Coast.