Tony Gibson must go as Ports of Auckland CEO

The Mar­itime Union says it is not cred­i­ble, or moral­ly accept­able, for Ports of Auck­land CEO Tony Gib­son to remain in his job.

Mr Gib­son admit­ted in a press con­fer­ence this week he did not know what had been going on at the port around health and safe­ty issues.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says it is not right the CEO was being entrust­ed by the Board to deal with prob­lems he had failed over many years to resolve.

He says work­ers at the port did not accept Mr Gib­son did not know what had been hap­pen­ing at the Ports of Auck­land dur­ing his tenure.

“Fol­low­ing the death of swim­mer Leslie Gel­berg­er in 2017, we were told the CEO was going to sort out the prob­lems. Fol­low­ing the death of LaBoom Dyer in 2018, we were told the CEO was going to sort out the prob­lems. Fol­low­ing the death of Palaamo Kalati in 2020, we were told the CEO was going to sort out the prob­lems. Now, fol­low­ing a report that con­demns sys­temic health and safe­ty fail­ings at the Ports of Auck­land, we are told the CEO is the per­son to fix the prob­lems he didn’t fix before.”

“It is rub­bish and no oth­er employ­ee in New Zealand would receive this spe­cial treat­ment.”

Work­ers at POAL and rel­a­tives of the vic­tims want­ed Mr Gib­son to go and had pub­licly said so.

Mr Har­ri­son says the Mar­itime Union has request­ed a stop­work meet­ing for all mem­bers at the Ports to attend to dis­cuss the find­ings of the report.

The Chair of the Ports of Auck­land Board of Direc­tors would be invit­ed to attend as well as the new health and safe­ty expert on the Board, Hazel Arm­strong.