Union meets with Labour Party on Ports of Auckland

On Wed­nes­day 23 Decem­ber rep­res­ent­at­ives from the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and, Auck­land Branch, Loc­al 13 met with Labour MP’s Tre­vor Mal­lard, Phil Twy­ford and Dari­en Fenton regard­ing the future of key Auck­land assets under the pro­posed Super City legis­la­tion.
Loc­al 13 Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe, Sec­ret­ary Rus­sell Mayn and Mari­time Walk­ing Del­eg­ate Dave Phil­lips expressed their con­cern over the future of the Ports of Auck­land which is under the cloud of privat­iz­a­tion sig­nalled by the remov­al of the pub­lic ref­er­en­dum safe­guard cov­er­ing this stra­tegic pub­lic asset.
Garry Parsloe said that a city the size of Auck­land depended on a vibrant port to sus­tain future growth, and the bene­fits returned to Auck­land rate­pay­ers through pub­lic own­er­ship were sig­ni­fic­ant. Not only does the port return profits to the pub­lic but it sup­por­ted industry through­out the Auck­land region.
It became clear that a lack of plan­ning for an integ­rated Logist­ics Chain Strategy under a Nation­al Gov­ern­ment would lead to fur­ther con­ges­tion on New Zea­l­and roads.
With the demise of the Labour Party’s Road­ways to Water­ways Policy a void has been left in the future plan­ning for an effi­cient New Zea­l­and Trans­port Chain.
Rail and Coastal Ship­ping would play a key role in redu­cing the “Car­bon Foot­print” going into the future, and a policy to retain these key stra­tegic assets in pub­lic con­trol was essen­tial as the demand for exports and imports increased over the next dec­ade.
The Labour Party and the Uni­on agreed to meet early in the New Year for for­mu­late a policy that would address these issues and the wider issue of all Auck­land pub­lic assets.
Mr Mayn com­men­ted that the future of the Ports of Auck­land had been placed in the hands of the cit­izens of Auck­land and the actions of Act MP Rod­ney Hide and the Nation­al Party to remove legis­la­tion pro­tect­ing the Ports without con­sult­ing with the Auck­land pub­lic were rep­re­hens­ible.