Maritime Union backs calls for shipping lanes

 The union that rep­re­sents New Zealand ship­ping crews is back­ing calls for manda­to­ry ship­ping lanes on the New Zealand coast.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand nation­al sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says there is real poten­tial for anoth­er Rena type ground­ing.

Welling­ton based marine expert John Rid­ing has detailed many recent near miss inci­dents by large ves­sels com­ing close to ground­ing on the New Zealand coast and off­shore islands and reefs.

The Mar­itime Union is back­ing his call for ship­ping lanes to be put in place on the New Zealand coast.

Mr Fleet­wood says that this is a basic mea­sure to tight­en up the mar­itime indus­try.

He says there is enor­mous time pres­sure to main­tain ship­ping sched­ules and this obvi­ous­ly can con­flict with safe­ty best prac­tice.

The same pres­sures are behind New Zealand’s bad health and safe­ty record in many indus­tries that have been dereg­u­lat­ed and where prof­it is put before safe­ty, he says.

Mr Fleet­wood says that most large ves­sels on the New Zealand coast are flag of con­ve­nience ves­sels, which increas­es risks due to lack of reg­u­la­tion in flag states, and in many cas­es are in poor con­di­tion.

“The New Zealand coast is an unfor­giv­ing envi­ron­ment and we should not wait for anoth­er Rena type sit­u­a­tion to move on this issue.”