Brown wants to privatise Ports of Auckland Operations

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, June 23rd, 2023 - 22 comments
Categories: assets, auckland supercity, local government, Privatisation, privatisation, supercity - Tags:

Fresh from his success at selling off part of Auckland Council’s Airport shares Wayne Brown has proposed another privatisation, that of Ports of Auckland Operations by way of the granting of an operating lease for the Port’s activities.

From Finn Blackwell at Radio New Zealand:

Just two weeks after [Mayor Wayne] Brown won a contentious vote for the partial sale of the council’s shareholding in Auckland Airport, he has floated the idea of selling an operating lease for the port business and reclaiming some of the land for public use.

He said it would make the port more efficient but the union feared it could be a financial disaster.

Ports of Auckland operates as an independent business, working off port land owned by the council, to which it also pays dividends.

Brown has always been highly critical of the port’s performance saying it is inefficient and has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on a botched automation project.

Now, he has been looking into what leasing its operations and freeing up land could mean for the city.

The Maritime Union thinks the decision would be disastrous:

The Maritime Union’s national secretary, Craig Harrison, warned that leasing out the port business would put Auckland in a dangerous financial situation.

“You’re setting up what is effectively a private monopoly,” he said.

“Our concern is, if you lease it out to a foreign operator, you’ll get a good price for it, all right, because there’s nowhere else to take those containers.”

He said there needed to be more discussion about the issue with the whole of the Auckland region involved in any conversations on what happened to the port.

Ports of Auckland has not been helped by a disastrous automation project which has affected its economic performance.  The motivation appears to have been designed to deunionise the site.  The subsequent industrial dispute The past CEO and the directors who were responsible have been moved on.

And the Mayor wants to make sure that more waterfront land is used for other purposes.

This particular wish is not unreasonable.  There is an international recognised phenomenon where ports in major cities shrink as their city grows.

But the privatisation of operations is unrelated to decisions on land use, in fact privatisation will make changes more difficult to achieve.  And “efficiencies” almost inevitably equate to cuts in workers conditions.

The proposal will shine the light on three Councillors, Richard Hills, Shane Henderson and Julie Fairey who each voted against proposals to stop the sale of airport shares.

This issue will put them in a difficult position.

And it allows Mike Lee to further rehabilitate himself with the left.  When he was ARC chair he oversaw the repurchase of the ports and he was involved in initial efforts to keep the Ports in public ownership.

I suspect that the Mayor will attempt to put more Airport shares up for sale next year.  Privatisation is going to be a live issue for Auckland’s councillors for a while.

22 comments on “Brown wants to privatise Ports of Auckland Operations ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    23 June 2023 at 11:30 am

    Mike Lee (from the Bruce Jesson/Alliance era) and a few brave South Auckland Councillors do seem to have an ideological grasp of this. The others need to get their act together asap. It is last dance time, they are dealing with a take no prisoners hostile Mayor. Brown needs to go down by majority Council vote–or Fairey and Henderson may as well go surfing or on sabbatical for the rest of their terms.

    In Mangonui Far North, locals led a people power resistance to a Marina proposal led by Brown (twice), but we won, there is still no ugly marina in Mangonui Harbour which Browny’s waterfront apartment overlooks.

    Why suck up to this highly unpleasant throwback?

    • Mike the Lefty 1.1
      24 June 2023 at 11:08 am

      Yeah the rich love their marinas, and they usually get their way like on Waiheke Island.

  2. Anne 2
    23 June 2023 at 11:37 am

    He's a one trick pony – or as I prefer to think of him… a one s**t pony.

    Dim as a 30 watt light-bulb but doesn't know it. A prime example of Dunning Kruger:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

    He's been in office for about 8 months and look at all the controversies. He's fallen out with many of the councillers. Name-called all manner of people because they didn't fall down on their knees and worship him. Treated other people with total disdain. Buggered up big time when strong leadership was required.

    And now he wants to sell the family silver for short term gain and long term pain. He needs to be kicked out of the position before he causes further grief and chaos.

    Edit: Aha I see TM has beaten me to it with a slightly more diplomatic version of the same sentiments.

    • Cricklewood 2.1
      23 June 2023 at 2:50 pm

      Wayne Brown is a lot of things but he's not dim.

      Thinking such is a dangerous underestimation of the man, he's managing to get through the agenda he was put in place to and seemingly managed to get a bunch of left councillors to betray their base as part of the deal.

      • Anne 2.1.1
        23 June 2023 at 4:42 pm

        I have known quite a few people like Brown – thick as two short planks but they make up for it with cunning.

        • tWiggle 2.1.1.1
          23 June 2023 at 7:21 pm

          Cunning and/or having someone smarter whispering in their ear.

          • Anne 2.1.1.1.1
            23 June 2023 at 8:58 pm

            Oh yes. He's the ultimate puppet on a string – moving and uttering whatever his masters tell him. Pity really. His bungling and bumbling was fun to watch.

        • KJT 2.1.1.2
          23 June 2023 at 8:32 pm

          I doubt if he is anything more than a "useful idiot" for moneyed predatory interests, same as David Seymour.

  3. Ad 3
    23 June 2023 at 2:20 pm

    Gosh wouldn't it be great if we had a single Minister in this government that would actually speak out about the public ownership of a critical infrastructure asset.

    Instead we have Hipkins in permanent defence mode, the Minister of Auckland compromised and fired, no appetite from the Minister of Finance who appears to have mentally checked out, and even worse key Labour and Green councillors on Auckland Council unable to defend the asset stripping that is occurring.

    Do we really have a Labour government?

    Imagine if this were happening with Clark and Cullen running the show.

    This makes me so angry I think Hipkins and crew should just pack up.

  4. KJT 4
    23 June 2023 at 2:39 pm

    Should be an intensive conflict of interest enquiry, about the right wings mania for flogging off public assets.

    How much of their electoral funding and support comes from wannabee beneficiaries of these thefts?

    • Ad 4.1
      23 June 2023 at 2:47 pm

      Be careful there. The Greens are massive corporate donation recipients.

      • weka 4.1.1
        23 June 2023 at 3:11 pm

        Nek minit, Green Party want the government to fund the television and film industry.

        • Ad 4.1.1.1
          23 June 2023 at 8:38 pm

          When you look across Labour funding for international film production, content sponsorship for sports, Maori TV, RNZ, TVNZ, film studios, and the vast subsidies for domestic tv programmes, all one observes is a perpetually jacked-up mediocrity with minor historical re-runs.

          If the Greens think shovelling more taxpayer cash into their cakeholes is a vote-winner, go for it.

      • KJT 4.1.3
        23 June 2023 at 9:42 pm

        “The Electoral Commission's deadline for detailed 2022 party donation returns was yesterday, but based on the $30k-plus sums (remember, that used to be the threshold for reporting within 10 days), last year’s hauls looked like this:

        National

        $2,339,100

        Act

        $1,151,000

        Labour

        $150,000

        Greens

        $122,700

        NZ First

        $35,000

        Chart: The Spinoff Source: Electoral Commission Created with Datawrapper

        https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/02-05-2023/from-rich-list-to-big-knit-the-years-chunky-party-donations-at-a-glance

        • Ad 4.1.3.1
          24 June 2023 at 3:37 pm

          Actually the Green Party is outstripping Labour in the millionaire donor front.

          In particular James Cameron "has recently contributed $50,000 to the Greens’ war chest alongside his wife, Suzy. That’s in addition to another $50,000 donation from long-time Greens supporter and former Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Tapert, also known as Lucy Lawless, this month.

          It’s led to the Greens overtaking Labour in large donations this year, amassing just shy of $500,000, while Labour has received about $458,000 in donations above $20,000 according to the Electoral Commission."

          Far be it from me to point out how this volume of mega-millionaire donations cuts against the Greens' own bill to introduce a $35,000 annual limit on political donations. Correction from Gharaman.

          https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/famous-hollywood-director-donates-to-greens-as-party-surges-ahead-of-labour/JNSGJOHS3VHRBHOV5GEZ6N6PIQ/

          • KJT 4.1.3.1.1
            24 June 2023 at 8:32 pm

            Note: Individual, NOT "corporate" doners.

            Until if and when a limit is enacted, why should the Greens have to handicap themselves in the "Game"? Already have a ban on corporate donations.

  5. Ad 5
    24 June 2023 at 9:35 am

    It is astonishing that no Labour MP or Minister has issued a single word on this.

  6. Mike the Lefty 6
    24 June 2023 at 11:07 am

    Why sell off the biggest income earner that Auckland region has? It doesn't make much sense, but I suppose selling off such an asset would make the books look very very good for today, but why worry about tomorrow. Roger Douglas (I never refer to him as "sir" because he doesn't deserve it) and Richard Prebble would no doubt approve.

    • Ad 6.1
      24 June 2023 at 3:41 pm

      I can't see any statement from any political party or MP stating that it was a bad idea to sell the Auckland Airport shares or that it was a bad idea to lease out operations at Ports of Auckland. Anyone?

  7. Thinker 7
    25 June 2023 at 2:19 pm

    The Ports is already privatised.

    It operates as a standalone company that is incorporated and registered with the companies office.

    It has one shareholder, the Auckland Council.

    Any owner, whether or not the port is sold off to someone else or retained by Auckland Council, could discuss the long term strategic goals of the business with the Board of Directors, including a minimum/targeted return on investment and/or the isolation of various parts of the port land.

    Prior to the amalgamation of Auckland I think selling off the ports would have required a public referendum. Not completely sure whether that was, or still is, the case.

    Ports can work if privately owned. Tauranga, Southport are listed on the stock exchange and Tauranga owns shareholdings of other ports around NZ. Relatively recently, Napier privatised some of its port.

    But, and it's a big but, given the current incorporation of the Auckland port, selling shares seems to me to be a red herring if it is being touted as the rationale for better performance and the delivery of certain land. At present, the single owner has a lot of clout in terms of making demands of the Board. Fragmented and sold to many small shareholders, the balance of power would shift to the Board itself.

    In short, in my opinion, if Wayne Brown is the business guru he purports to be, his best chance of getting things done down on the port is for the Council to retain ownership and getting down to business with the Board that reports to the Council. That was, if I recall correctly, an election platform he stood on.