Fonterra milking New Zealand taxpayers

The Mar­itime Union has hit back at “social­ly irre­spon­si­ble” Fonter­ra pulling out of region­al ports and says the dairy giant’s prof­its are being sub­si­dized by the tax­pay­er.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says Fonter­ra has come out with “weak excus­es” for its deci­sion to pull out of some region­al ports in favour of trans­port­ing prod­ucts by long dis­tance rail.

Mr Han­son says the future of the New Zealand trans­port indus­try seems to be in the hands of one man, Fonter­ra Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of Sup­ply Chain Strat­e­gy Nigel Jones.

“Fonter­ra holds the fate of whole region­al economies in their hands because of their size and influ­ence, but seem to have no account­abil­i­ty to any­one but them­selves.”

He says recent com­ments by Mr Jones to rur­al sec­tor media con­firmed Fonter­ra had no inter­est in work­ing for a sta­ble and secure region­al econ­o­my.

“Mr Jones says his goal is to put more mon­ey in farm­ers pock­ets. Yet he has admit­ted the large pub­lic invest­ment in rail has been behind the deci­sion to dump ports. There has been no debate as to whether this vision is cor­rect or dan­ger­ous­ly wrong. Region­al com­mu­ni­ties have been ignored.”

Mr Han­son says he does not believe the rates being paid by Fonter­ra to rail their goods are sus­tain­able and are basi­cal­ly being propped up by the pub­lic.

He says there is a real dan­ger if the rail plan fails, there would be a huge increase in con­tain­er trucks on the road and region­al ports would have dis­ap­peared.

Mr Han­son says the deci­sion by Fonter­ra affects all the oth­er pro­duc­ers who send goods through region­al ports like Timaru and New Ply­mouth.

He says pub­lic invest­ment in rail is a good thing, but only as part of an inte­grat­ed trans­port sys­tem, and pub­licly owned rail should not be used to play off regions and trans­port modes against each oth­er.

“It is com­mon knowl­edge that ports such as Timaru and New Ply­mouth had planned and invest­ed heav­i­ly in upgrad­ing infra­struc­ture to cater for Fonter­ra. Now they are left high and dry because of overnight deci­sions. There has been no con­sul­ta­tion, no social respon­si­bil­i­ty and no recog­ni­tion from Fonter­ra about the wider impli­ca­tions of their actions.”

“Peo­ple in the regions are pay­ing three times to sub­si­dize Fonter­ra prof­its – they are pay­ing for their region­al ports to invest in infra­struc­ture that is then made worth­less, they are pay­ing to upgrade rail infra­struc­ture to car­ry Fonter­ra goods, and they are pay­ing with their jobs and liveli­hoods when Fonter­ra makes overnight deci­sions to aban­don region­al ports.”

Mr Han­son says the “hands off” approach by Gov­ern­ment to ports has led to a dys­func­tion­al sit­u­a­tion which was harm­ing region­al economies.

“We can­not have a com­pa­ny like this able to dic­tate terms to region­al New Zealand and cause hav­oc in region­al economies through arbi­trary and irre­spon­si­ble deci­sions.”

He says that the prof­its made by Fonter­ra and pri­ma­ry indus­tries are not just cre­at­ed on the farm, they are cre­at­ed by an entire pro­duc­tion and logis­tics chain that includes trans­port work­ers, ports and ship­ping.

“The actions of Fonter­ra have a mas­sive impact on region­al economies, and if they con­tin­ue to make harm­ful deci­sions based entire­ly on their own short term inter­ests, then reg­u­la­tion is the only answer.”