Selling Port of Auckland would be “letting the vultures in”

The Mari­time Uni­on says ongo­ing uncer­tainty about the future of Port of Auck­land is a threat to the eco­nom­ic sta­bil­ity of Auck­land City and New Zea­l­and.

The May­or of Auck­land is pro­pos­ing two options – the sale of an oper­at­ing lease of the Ports of Auck­land (with pro­ceeds going into a fund), or con­tin­ued Coun­cil own­er­ship of the Port with a gradu­al reduc­tion in size.

The stated pre­ferred option for the May­or is privat­isa­tion – sale of a long term oper­at­ing lease.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says the Port of Auck­land must remain in pub­lic own­er­ship.

Mr Har­ris­on says there is danger of massive price hikes on freight if Port of Auck­land was privat­ised, as recently happened in Aus­trali­an ports oper­ated by glob­al port con­glom­er­ate DP World.

“It will be worse than the chick­ens com­ing home to roost if we hand over the port to an out­fit like this – it will be the vul­tures com­ing home to roost.”

Mr Har­ris­on says there is cur­rently no feas­ible altern­at­ive to the Port of Auck­land, with oth­er ports oper­at­ing at capa­city, and lack of infra­struc­ture to move freight to Auck­land from oth­er ports.

He says it is not real­ist­ic to shrink the Port without hav­ing a plan in place as how the grow­ing quant­ity of freight will be handled.

“Any major changes to port loc­a­tion or the sup­ply chain would be a multi-bil­lion dol­lar, dec­ades long pro­cess, requir­ing cent­ral and loc­al Gov­ern­ment co-ordin­a­tion, includ­ing coastal ship­ping and rail links.”

“Put simply, the cur­rent value of the Port of Auck­land as a trade gate­way for the coun­try far out­weighs its value to the Coun­cil as a one off cash injec­tion.”

Mr Har­ris­on says accord­ing to polling car­ried out for the Mari­time Uni­on, a strong major­ity of Auck­landers oppose any sale of the Port, and elec­ted rep­res­ent­at­ives would be held to account if they went against the will of the people.

“There is no doubt Auck­land City faces dif­fi­cult decisions, but the sale of the port is not a solu­tion.”

“The best approach is to main­tain a steady course for the Port of Auck­land as a prof­it­able stra­tegic asset for the people of Auck­land.”