Victory for Kiwi jobs as Government rejects foreign cement ship exemption

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and today wel­comed the decision by Asso­ci­ate Trans­port Min­is­ter James Mea­ger to decline NovaAl­goma Cement Car­ri­ers’ (NACC) applic­a­tion to oper­ate a for­eign-flagged ves­sel car­ry­ing Holcim cement on the New Zea­l­and coast.

The failed applic­a­tion for an exemp­tion under Sec­tion 198 of the Mari­time Trans­port Act sought per­mis­sion for the Panamani­an-flagged and over­seas-crewed NACC Vega to replace the New Zea­l­and-flagged and crewed MV Buf­falo.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Carl Find­lay says the Min­is­ter has made the right decision.

He says the decision con­firms New Zea­l­and law can­not be ignored and side-stepped by mul­tina­tion­al cor­por­a­tions seek­ing to des­troy loc­al jobs through Flag of Con­veni­ence ship­ping.

“This is a win for loc­al jobs and New Zea­l­and ship­ping.”

Mr Find­lay says the situ­ation was a clear test on pro­tect­ing Kiwi jobs, and this decision sends a strong mes­sage to Holcim about its oblig­a­tions to New Zea­l­and.

In Novem­ber, Holcim gave a month’s notice of redund­ancy to 32 skilled New Zea­l­and sea­farers crew­ing the MV Buf­falo.

Mr Find­lay says Holcim must now accept their plan to replace exper­i­enced New Zea­l­and crews with for­eign labour has failed.

“MUNZ calls on Holcim to com­mit to sup­port­ing New Zea­l­and ship­ping and retain­ing loc­al jobs. The highly skilled crew of the MV Buf­falo is ready, will­ing, and able to con­tin­ue serving New Zeal­and’s coastal dis­tri­bu­tion net­work.”

He says Holcim’s pre­vi­ous threat to use road trans­port for their cement if they didn’t get their way was a non­sense and a bluff.

The Mari­time Uni­on con­grat­u­lates the crew of the MV Buf­falo for stand­ing strong through­out this pro­trac­ted dis­pute.

Mr Find­lay says the entire epis­ode has high­lighted the vul­ner­ab­il­ity of New Zealand’s mari­time trade.

He says the Mari­time Uni­on is cam­paign­ing on a plan to rebuild New Zealand’s domest­ic coastal ship­ping.

“New Zea­l­and requires a robust and per­man­ent policy frame­work to rebuild a ded­ic­ated New Zea­l­and domest­ic coastal ship­ping fleet, crewed by New Zeal­anders, ensur­ing secur­ity and resi­li­ence in our sup­ply chains.”

This cap­ab­il­ity proved crit­ic­al dur­ing nation­al crises such as the Christ­ch­urch and Kaik?ura earth­quakes and Cyc­lone Gab­ri­elle, he says.

Mr Find­lay says the Mari­time Uni­on looked for­ward to an ongo­ing dis­cus­sion about the future of the mari­time industry with Asso­ci­ate Min­is­ter Mea­ger in the New Year.

Flag of Con­veni­ence (FOC) ship­ping is a reg­u­lat­ory loop­hole where shipown­ers register ves­sels in for­eign nations (such as Panama or the Cook Islands) rather than their home coun­try, primar­ily to max­im­ize profit at the expense of safety and work­ers’ rights.

This prac­tice allows own­ers to sever the “genu­ine link” between a ship and its actu­al own­er­ship, enabling them to bypass nation­al labour laws, tax oblig­a­tions, and safety stand­ards.

Ship­ping com­pan­ies can effect­ively oper­ate “float­ing sweat­shops,” exploit­ing vul­ner­able crews with poverty wages and min­im­al leg­al pro­tec­tions, which cre­ates a race to the bot­tom that under­cuts respons­ible oper­at­ors.

For New Zea­l­and, the encroach­ment of FOC ship­ping is a dir­ect threat to our eco­nom­ic sov­er­eignty, bio­se­c­ur­ity, and loc­al jobs.

Mul­tina­tion­al com­pan­ies use FOC ves­sels to dis­place New Zea­l­and-flagged and crewed ships on domest­ic coastal routes, des­troy­ing loc­al jobs and erod­ing our mari­time cap­ab­il­ity.

Rely­ing on FOC ship­ping com­prom­ises sup­ply chain resi­li­ence and envir­on­ment­al safety, as fatigued crews on sub­stand­ard ves­sels sig­ni­fic­antly increase the risk of mari­time acci­dents.

Domest­ic coastal freight should be pro­tec­ted by strong laws, ensur­ing it is car­ried by New Zeal­anders on safe, reg­u­lated ves­sels rather than out­sourced to the low­est glob­al bid­der.