Privatization of Ports of Auckland would be a disaster for Auckland

The Mar­itime Union says any pri­va­ti­za­tion of the Ports of Auck­land would be a dis­as­ter for Auck­land.

The Union was respond­ing to the upcom­ing release of Coun­cil com­mis­sioned reviews into the future of the ports, and media reports of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of an oper­at­ing lease for the Ports going to a glob­al oper­a­tor.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says relin­quish­ing con­trol of Auckland’s key strate­gic asset would be a “lose lose sit­u­a­tion” for ratepay­ers, work­ers and busi­ness­es.

“The Aus­tralian expe­ri­ence is pri­vati­sa­tion of port oper­a­tions cre­ates anoth­er lay­er of man­age­ment costs and prof­it-tak­ing for no real ben­e­fits.”

Mr Har­ri­son says poten­tial out­comes could include cus­tomers fac­ing high­er ter­mi­nal charges, infra­struc­ture being run down, work­ers’ pay and con­di­tions being attacked, and a lack of account­abil­i­ty by over­seas equi­ty investors.

“The risks of going down this path are mas­sive, and the only ben­e­fi­cia­ries in the long term would be the new own­ers.”

Mr Har­ri­son says the “one off sug­ar hit” of pri­va­ti­za­tion would soon wear off if the Port was per­mit­ted to effec­tive­ly become a pri­vate monop­oly.

“Split­ting off leased port oper­a­tions from land own­er­ship does not change the fact the Ports would be pri­va­tized and the new own­er would have huge lever­age over Auck­land.

Mr Har­ri­son says the depen­dence of New Zealand on glob­al ship­ping lines dur­ing the COVID pan­dem­ic cre­at­ed major prob­lems for New Zealand busi­ness, with delays, con­ges­tion and price hikes.

He says as there is no strate­gic plan for New Zealand ports, the entry of Glob­al Net­work Ter­mi­nal oper­a­tors would have sim­i­lar impli­ca­tions and could desta­bi­lize the nation­al sup­ply chain.

Mr Har­ri­son says after years of mis­man­age­ment, the Ports of Auck­land has recent­ly turned the cor­ner in per­for­mance.

He says his­toric prob­lems were a result of pre­vi­ous port management’s hos­tile approach to its work­force and the flawed automa­tion project.

“New man­age­ment and the union work­force are now work­ing in a con­struc­tive and pos­i­tive way, and with the can­cel­la­tion of the automa­tion project, the Ports are back on track deliv­er­ing to Auck­land.”

Mr Har­ri­son says there is not wide sup­port for pri­va­ti­za­tion and most ratepay­ers do not want to see key assets sold off.

“Our advice for Auck­land Coun­cil is to leave the Ports to get on with the job with­out con­tin­u­al­ly mov­ing the goal­posts.”

Mr Har­ri­son says the Mar­itime Union wel­comed today’s state­ment from the May­or that he was open mind­ed about the out­come of the cur­rent review, and that he would be engag­ing with stake­hold­ers includ­ing the Union.

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand rep­re­sents the major­i­ty of the work­force at Ports of Auck­land.