Maritime Union calls for Government review of Marsden Point closure

The Mari­time Uni­on says the clos­ure of Marsden Point refinery is send­ing New Zea­l­and on a high risk track at a bad time.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says the clos­ure is a giant step back­wards for New Zealand’s energy secur­ity.

The announce­ment by Refin­ing NZ that the refinery will be replaced by a ter­min­al for impor­ted fuel is a major shift in New Zealand’s fuel arrange­ments, he says.

He says Refin­ing NZ CEO Naomi James needs to provide an iron clad guar­an­tee that fuel sup­ply to New Zea­l­and will not be endangered.

Mr Har­ris­on says the implic­a­tions for fuel secur­ity around New Zea­l­and are very ser­i­ous, espe­cially for region­al eco­nom­ies and the primary sec­tor.

He says out­side Auck­land, fuel is cur­rently shipped from Marsden Point to ports using New Zea­l­and flagged and crewed ves­sels, whose future could be in jeop­ardy, with future sup­plies pos­sibly delivered to ports by inter­na­tion­al ves­sels.

He says the great les­son of the last year has been that rely­ing on inter­na­tion­al ship­ping and sup­ply chains is no longer a safe option, espe­cially for small remote mar­kets like New Zea­l­and.

“Just ask any one in any pro­vin­cial port around New Zea­l­and what the reli­ab­il­ity of inter­na­tion­al ship­ping ser­vices has been in the last year – it has been com­plete chaos.”

Mr Har­ris­on says there are mul­tiple down­sides to the clos­ure decision, includ­ing the loss of employ­ment and the loss of essen­tial skills as the work­force moves on.

“We need to be look­ing at the big pic­ture for New Zea­l­and, not what is most prof­it­able for a privately owned cor­por­a­tion.”

Mr Har­ris­on says the fact that Energy Min­is­ter Megan Woods took a paper to Cab­in­et with a pro­pos­al for secur­ing the future of the refinery was a clear indic­a­tion that clos­ure was a risky strategy.

He says the Gov­ern­ment was giv­ing too much cre­dence to the word of a private cor­por­a­tion with its own agenda and interests.

Energy secur­ity and sup­ply chain secur­ity were now big glob­al issues and the Gov­ern­ment should review the decision and work to keep the refinery in oper­a­tion, says Mr Har­ris­on.

He says the con­tin­ued exist­ence of the refinery would provide essen­tial secur­ity for fuel, as crude oil for refin­ing was obtain­able for mul­tiple sources, and would also main­tain an import­ant domest­ic skill base and sup­ply net­work.