Qualified support for South Island ports merger

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has offered qual­i­fied sup­port to the merg­er of Lyt­tel­ton Port Com­pa­ny and the Port of Ota­go announced today.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union is a strong backer of ports remain­ing in local con­trol to pre­serve employ­ment and busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties.

“We are pleased to see local con­trol as the Union has long been opposed to the loss of key infra­struc­ture to over­seas inter­ests.”

Mr Han­son says the rela­tion­ship between the new struc­ture and the Ports of Timaru and South­port (Bluff) needs to be looked at.

“It is our view that any process should involve oth­er ports in the region, New Zealand can­not afford to have port ratio­nal­iza­tion dis­rupt local economies and cause prob­lems at a time of glob­al reces­sion. Ports are not ordi­nary busi­ness­es – they are the essen­tial part of the sup­ply chain between New Zealand and the glob­al econ­o­my.”

Mr Han­son says the Union is watch­ing devel­op­ments close­ly as it is con­cerned to about mem­bers jobs.

“Obvi­ous­ly this announce­ment will mean the long talked about process of port ratio­nal­iza­tion is now well under­way, but we have to ensure the process is car­ried out in a sen­si­ble way to min­i­mize any inse­cu­ri­ty or con­fu­sion.”

Mr Han­son says the oppor­tu­ni­ty is there for a nation­al ports plan and some form of nation­al own­er­ship to avoid the ten­den­cy to parochial com­pe­ti­tion and dupli­ca­tion of resources under the cur­rent mod­el.

“Could it be time to con­sid­er KiwiPort?”

He says the cur­rent world finan­cial cri­sis makes the Port Chalmers-Lyt­tel­ton announce­ment all the more rel­e­vant.

Mr Han­son says the move is a nat­ur­al fit for recent moves by the Gov­ern­ment to encour­age domes­tic coastal ship­ping.

“The only cau­tion we have is that employ­ees of these com­pa­nies are giv­en every con­sid­er­a­tion in retain­ing employ­ment with­in any new struc­ture that evolves.”