Case for New Zealand shipping now urgent

Mar­itime Union Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says there is a grow­ing real­i­sa­tion that New Zealand need­ed to have ship­ping capa­bil­i­ty to ensure reli­able and secure ser­vices.

He says an increas­ing num­ber of char­ters by exporters was proof that New Zealand need­ed local solu­tions to ship­ping con­ges­tion.

Lead­ing fig­ures in the logis­tics indus­try had acknowl­edged the need for New Zealand coastal ship­ping and new ideas.

Mr Har­ri­son says there is still how­ev­er an ele­ment of busi­ness own­ers who want to keep New Zealand ship­ping and New Zealand work­ers exclud­ed from this process.

“A few would pre­fer to see their busi­ness fail through lack of secure ship­ping, rather than admit that we need our own domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al ship­ping solu­tions.”

He says New Zealand ships and New Zealand sea­far­ers had to be part of a nation­al plan to ensure sup­ply chain secu­ri­ty and reli­able ser­vices, and a lev­el of redun­dan­cy.

This meant a co-ordi­nat­ed and long term change, not a frag­ment­ed tem­po­rary band aid with short term char­ters, he says.

Mr Har­ri­son says the cur­rent use of exploit­ed over­seas sea­far­ers to move coastal car­go was a non­sense and had dam­aged our mar­itime capa­bil­i­ty.

“It is the equiv­a­lent of hav­ing truck dri­vers on state high­ways or air crew on our planes being import­ed from over­seas as short term labour, with poor wages and infe­ri­or con­di­tions.”

New Zealand ship­ping was dis­ad­van­taged by cur­rent laws, and this was threat­en­ing the entire sup­ply chain, as New Zealand was depen­dent on over­seas ship­ping cor­po­rates that had oth­er pri­or­i­ties rather than the small New Zealand mar­ket.