Ferry privatisation would be a disaster

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ) says sug­ges­tions of privat­isa­tion of the new Cook Strait Inter­is­lander fer­ries would be a dan­ger­ous step back­wards.

The pro­pos­als were con­tained in a cab­in­et paper presen­ted to the Gov­ern­ment earli­er this year and obtained by media under the OIA.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Carl Find­lay says past privat­isa­tion of stra­tegic trans­port infra­struc­ture had caused great harm to our nation­al sup­ply chain.

He says the ideo­lo­gic­al push for privat­iz­a­tion will be com­ing from the extreme right in the Gov­ern­ment rep­res­en­ted by the ACT Party.

Mr Find­lay says New Zeal­and’s rail net­work, includ­ing the fer­ries, had been sold off to over­seas cor­por­ates in the 1990s by a right wing Nation­al Gov­ern­ment.

“What fol­lowed was a text­book case of cor­por­ate raid­ing, where assets were stripped for short-term profit, main­ten­ance was run into the ground, and work­ers paid with their lives due to shock­ing health and safety breaches.”

“The tax­pay­er was then forced to spend mil­lions to buy back the asset and start the long pro­cess of fix­ing it up.”

Mr Find­lay says it is essen­tial for a New Zea­l­and owned, pub­lic ferry oper­at­or to be on the Cook Strait for eco­nom­ic secur­ity and sup­ply chain resi­li­ence.

He says the Cook Strait is our ‘blue high­way’, an essen­tial exten­sion of State High­way 1 and the Main Trunk Line.

“We believe the Min­is­ter of Rail, Win­ston Peters, who has spoken at length about the fail­ures of past privat­isa­tions, will not allow the Gov­ern­ment to be swayed by ACT style agen­das.”

Mr Find­lay says the ferry replace­ment pro­cess has already been a fiasco, with the decision of Fin­ance Min­is­ter Nic­ola Wil­lis to can­cel the iRex pro­ject cre­at­ing years of delays and a bil­lion dol­lar cost to New Zea­l­and.

He says there are many oth­er oppor­tun­it­ies for private oper­at­ors to enter into oth­er coastal ship­ping ser­vices, and the Gov­ern­ment should be sup­port­ing this goal.

“For the Cook Strait, our focus should be on invest­ing in a mod­ern, reli­able, and pub­licly-owned ferry fleet that is fit for the 21st cen­tury and serves all New Zeal­anders.”

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and rep­res­ents sea­far­ing and cater­ing crews on both Cook Strait ferry oper­at­ors.