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.”