Day: 1 November 2006

Port merger must be driven by public interest, not commercial interests

The Mar­itime Union says that co-oper­a­tion between ports and regions is vital to the future of the mar­itime indus­try and New Zealand.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the pro­posed merg­er of Ports of Auck­land and Port of Tau­ran­ga needs to be man­aged as part of a nation­al ports strat­e­gy dri­ven by region­al co-oper­a­tion.

He says that the recent coastal ship­ping report by the Ship­ping Fed­er­a­tion and the announce­ment of a Gov­ern­ment review into casu­al­iza­tion of employ­ment showed that good work was being done on the prob­lems faced by the mar­itime indus­try.