Maritime Union backs public ownership plan for rail and ferries

The Mar­itime Union says Gov­ern­ment plans to bring rail and fer­ries back under pub­lic own­er­ship would be a major step for­ward for New Zealand.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the move is long over­due and is required to bring New Zealand’s trans­port infra­struc­ture up to world stan­dards.

“We need an inte­grat­ed trans­port sys­tem in New Zealand that has a sub­stan­tial pub­lic-owned com­po­nent for secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty.”

Shipping plan gets thumbs up

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says the release today of the final domes­tic ship­ping strat­e­gy “Sea Change” is a pos­i­tive move for New Zealand ship­ping.

Mar­itime Union Vice Pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe says the Gov­ern­men­t’s plans for coastal ship­ping are mov­ing in the right direc­tion.

He says $36 mil­lion of fund­ing for devel­op­ing coastal ship­ping over the next four years was a major boost.