Aucklanders – including government voters – strongly reject Auckland port privatisation

New Tal­bot Mills polling on behalf of the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ) shows a vast major­ity of Auck­landers are against the pro­pos­al to privat­ise the Auck­land Port – includ­ing a major­ity of voters for each of the cur­rent coali­tion gov­ern­ment parties.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says the new polling shows no appet­ite for the costly and risky privat­isa­tion. 

“Eighty per­cent of Auck­landers who vote New Zea­l­and First are against this pro­pos­al, and even a major­ity of Act voters don’t like it.

“Any­one can see that whatever dol­lars the coun­cil gets for selling the rights to the port the new oper­at­or will need to take just as much and a big profit mar­gin from the Auck­land eco­nomy over the term of the lease.

“The May­or wants to talk about what the coun­cil could do with $2 bil­lion more in the bank, but that money and much more will come out of Auck­land busi­nesses pock­ets, and the pock­ets of Auck­landers if privat­isa­tion goes ahead. You can’t talk about privat­ising this stra­tegic asset without look­ing at both sides of the bal­ance sheet for Auck­land – there’s no magic money here.

“But it’s not just Auck­landers who would pay for privat­ising the port. It is a nation­ally stra­tegic asset that acts as a gate­way for our eco­nomy. Any private oper­at­or would seek to exploit that pos­i­tion and would have the resources and the incent­ive to chal­lenge any attempts to increase com­pet­i­tion such as expand­ing oper­a­tions at oth­er ports.

“Now that the coun­cil has agreed to take this unfit pro­pos­al out to Auck­landers it is import­ant that the real costs and risks of privat­isa­tion are made clear. 

“Privat­ising the port is being pitched as a way to get cash now, but it will be Auck­landers and Kiwi busi­nesses that pay the price for it for a gen­er­a­tion.”

Notes on polling

Polling of 1034 Auck­landers was con­duc­ted over the peri­od 14 Novem­ber to 12 Decem­ber 2023. Full res­ults and meth­od­o­logy are avail­able here. This aligns with earli­er polling on this issue that can be found here.

MUNZ notes that meth­od­o­logy (includ­ing the ques­tion asked) for the Mayor’s Curia poll on this issue has still not been released.