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.