Shipping plan gets thumbs up

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says the release today of the final domes­tic ship­ping strat­e­gy “Sea Change” is a pos­i­tive move for New Zealand ship­ping.

Mar­itime Union Vice Pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe says the Gov­ern­men­t’s plans for coastal ship­ping are mov­ing in the right direc­tion.

He says $36 mil­lion of fund­ing for devel­op­ing coastal ship­ping over the next four years was a major boost.

“The Mar­itime Union wants to see some of this fund­ing put towards the train­ing of young New Zealan­ders for careers in the mar­itime indus­try, which is the only real solu­tion to skills short­ages.”

Mr Parsloe says oth­er pos­i­tives are the stat­ed goal for 30% of all inter-region­al domes­tic freight by 2040 to be moved by coastal ship­ping, and the poten­tial for major hub ports served by region­al feed­er ports.

“This will have major eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fits for New Zealand.”

He says the Union is hap­py with the Gov­ern­men­t’s announce­ment it will be clar­i­fy­ing Sec­tion 198 of the Mar­itime Trans­port Act 1994 which deals with the move­ment of coastal car­go by inter­na­tion­al ves­sels between domes­tic ports.

Mr Parsloe says this could offer a poten­tial boost for New Zealand owned coastal ship­ping.

He says ship­ping is poised for a major come­back in trans­port and the Sea Change strat­e­gy showed a proac­tive approach by the Gov­ern­ment to devel­op­ing the mar­itime indus­try of the future.