Aucklanders show strong opposition to port sale in new poll

The Mar­itime Union has released a new poll that shows an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of Auck­lan­ders sup­port keep­ing the Port of Auck­land in pub­lic own­er­ship.

Polling was car­ried out by Tal­bot Mills from 4–9 Octo­ber 2023 on a sam­ple of 517 Auck­lan­ders.

In answer to the ques­tion “Do you think Auck­lan­ders should con­tin­ue to own and prof­it from the Auck­land Port?”, 63% of respon­dents answered yes, 7% answered no and 30% were unsure.

In answer to the ques­tion “May­or Wayne Brown has sug­gest­ed sell­ing the Auck­land Port to over­seas investors. Do you sup­port or oppose the sale of the Port?”, 64% were opposed to the sale, 15% were in sup­port and 21% were unsure.

Mar­itime Union Auck­land Branch Local 13 Sec­re­tary Rus­sell Mayn says the poll con­firms Auck­lan­ders are opposed to pri­vati­sa­tion of the Ports of Auck­land by an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty.

The polling fol­lows the Sep­tem­ber 2023 release of a report com­mis­sioned by the Mar­itime Union that detailed how port pri­vati­sa­tion in Aus­tralia had led to major increas­es in port charges as pri­vate own­ers sought to recoup their invest­ment.

Mr Mayn says there has been no con­vinc­ing argu­ment for port pri­vati­sa­tion and there is no man­date for a sell off.

“This is an asset that is immense­ly impor­tant to Auckland’s econ­o­my and to New Zealand’s sup­ply chain. The May­or of Auck­land needs to share the details of his pri­vati­sa­tion plan and par­ty lead­ers need to tell vot­ers where they stand on this risky and reck­less pri­vati­sa­tion pro­pos­al.”

He says the May­or of Auck­land has a dif­fi­cult job in deal­ing with the finan­cial pres­sures on Auck­land City, but the clear mes­sage is Port pri­vati­sa­tion is not the answer.

“As the May­or has acknowl­edged, the Port of Auck­land is cur­rent­ly mak­ing good returns for Auck­lan­ders.”

Mr Mayn says the Mar­itime Union is call­ing on Auck­land Coun­cil­lors who have not yet stat­ed their posi­tion on port pri­vati­sa­tion to con­firm their views in the inter­ests of trans­paren­cy.