Maritime Union backs public ownership plan for rail and ferries

The Mar­itime Union says Gov­ern­ment plans to bring rail and fer­ries back under pub­lic own­er­ship would be a major step for­ward for New Zealand.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the move is long over­due and is required to bring New Zealand’s trans­port infra­struc­ture up to world stan­dards.

“We need an inte­grat­ed trans­port sys­tem in New Zealand that has a sub­stan­tial pub­lic-owned com­po­nent for secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty.”

Mr Han­son says dereg­u­la­tion has led to huge dam­age to rail and ship­ping.

“For exam­ple, we have had mas­sive growth in fuel-inef­fi­cient, con­ges­tion-cre­at­ing road trans­port, where­as low impact modes such as ship­ping and rail have been let to run down.”

He says both rail and ship­ping are the trans­port of the future in a world where cli­mate change and peak oil were mas­sive threats.

Mr Han­son says more direc­tion is need­ed in the trans­port indus­try and pub­lic own­er­ship of key infra­struc­ture would make this pos­si­ble.

He says the next step should be a nation­al ports pol­i­cy that brings ports under pub­lic own­er­ship and makes them work co-oper­a­tive­ly for the nation­al inter­est.

“An effi­cient trans­port and logis­tics sec­tor is essen­tial for New Zealand as a trad­ing nation, and leav­ing it to the mar­ket and pri­vate inter­ests has been a big fat fail­ure.”

Mr Han­son crit­i­cized neg­a­tive com­ments from the Nation­al Par­ty MP Bill Eng­lish on pub­lic own­er­ship and “feath­er-bed­ding”.

“Bill Eng­lish knows noth­ing about the trans­port sec­tor apart from being dri­ven around in the back of a tax­pay­er-paid lim­ou­sine, and the only feath­er-bed­ding that has gone on in trans­port is for the cor­po­rate preda­tors who Nation­al sold off our assets to at bar­gain base­ment prices.”

Mr Han­son says Mr Eng­lish should try to lash some loose car­go on a Cook Strait fer­ry in a gale before he casts asper­sions on New Zealand sea­far­ers.

He says the lega­cy of the 1990s Nation­al Gov­ern­ment poli­cies in trans­port was a failed sys­tem, attacks on work­ers pay and con­di­tions, and worst of all, death and injury through the run­down of health and safe­ty prac­tices.

ENDS

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son on 021390585

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