Is Santa Brown coming to town – or is port sale a plan fit for a Grinch?

The May­or of Auck­land has paid back a busi­ness class air­fare to Aus­tralia from Octo­ber, after vis­it­ing offi­cials and politi­cians over the pri­vati­sa­tion of port oper­a­tions.

Accord­ing to Coun­cil rules, short haul flights such as this have to be econ­o­my class, and the dif­fer­ence has been refund­ed by the May­or.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says any­one can make a mis­take, but the big­ger pic­ture of port pri­va­ti­za­tion would cost Auck­land ratepay­ers a lot more than a busi­ness class flight in the long run.

Mr Har­ri­son says if the Port of Auck­land is sold, it would be ‘Christ­mas every day’ for the new own­ers – as it had been in Aus­tralia, where extra port fees from pri­vate oper­a­tors were hit­ting busi­ness and con­sumers hard.

“Every present under the Christ­mas tree will have a hefty price tag if a pri­vate port monop­oly hits Auck­land with decades of Grinch style price goug­ing.”

Mr Har­ri­son says this Christ­mas, the Mar­itime Union is ask­ing for a full and trans­par­ent release of fig­ures as to how much the port sale plan is cost­ing the ratepay­er.

The Auck­land Coun­cil has put port pri­va­ti­za­tion out to con­sul­ta­tion after a close vote ear­li­er this month.

New Tal­bot Mills polling on behalf of the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) released in Decem­ber 2023 shows a vast major­i­ty of Auck­lan­ders are against the pro­pos­al to pri­va­tise the Auck­land Port – includ­ing a major­i­ty of vot­ers for each of the cur­rent coali­tion gov­ern­ment par­ties.

A sug­gest­ed New Year Res­o­lu­tion for the May­or?

“Leave the Port of Auck­land in pub­lic own­er­ship,” says Mr Har­ri­son.