Ports of Auckland must remain in public hands

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says that any pro­pos­al to pri­va­tize the Ports of Auck­land would cre­ate a “per­fect storm of oppo­si­tion.”

Mar­itime Union Local 13 Pres­i­dent Denis Carlisle says those push­ing the plan were peo­ple out of time.

“There is obvi­ous­ly a fac­tion out there who want to bring back port pri­va­ti­za­tion plans from the dead.”

Mr Carlisle says that the pri­va­ti­za­tion strat­e­gy with the Ports of Auck­land failed in the 1990s due to mass pub­lic oppo­si­tion and recent attempts to part-pri­va­tize the Ports of Lyt­tel­ton had also end­ed in fail­ure.

“It seems bizarre at a time when the dereg­u­la­tion and pri­va­ti­za­tion agen­da has now been com­plete­ly dis­cred­it­ed glob­al­ly, there are peo­ple who still want to con­tin­ue on down the same old path.”

He says that the port has recent­ly seen major pro­duc­tiv­i­ty gains and to com­plain about reduced prof­its when the glob­al econ­o­my was in cri­sis showed pri­va­ti­za­tion pro­po­nents were out of touch with real­i­ty.

Mr Carlisle says it was obvi­ous that there were prob­lems with the port sys­tem in New Zealand.

These prob­lems were due to lack of a nation­al ports plan and reg­u­la­tion, lead­ing to self-destruc­tive com­pe­ti­tion and the casu­al­iza­tion of the work­force, and pri­va­ti­za­tion would only make mat­ters worse.

“In the end analy­sis, the role of ports is to ensure the flow of goods to and from New Zealand, not as a cash cow for pri­vate investors look­ing for a quick buck.”

He says it made no sense for a small, mar­itime trade depen­dant nation like New Zealand to pass over con­trol of its trans­port infra­struc­ture to pri­vate inter­ests whose only motive is short term prof­it.

He says that if board mem­bers were not com­fort­able with the sta­tus of the Ports of Auck­land they should clear out.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Mar­itime Union Local 13 Auck­land Water­front Branch Pres­i­dent Denis Carlisle on 021963528