Tell Auckland Council don’t privatise the Port

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, March 18th, 2024 - 12 comments
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The Maritime Union of New Zealand has set up an online petition urging Auckland Council not to privatise Auckland Port and also this very helpful web page allowing people to make submissions on Auckland Council’s draft long term plan, where the privatisation proposal is being considered.

From the webpage:

Privatising the port is an incredibly risky plan. There have been all kinds of claims made about sale price, but nobody knows what would actually happen.

What we do know is that in Australia this form of privatisation has cost local economies hundreds of millions of dollars.

Private port companies – the very same companies that would likely bid for the Auckland port – have ramped up fees and that profit has all gone offshore with little or no tax paid on it.

For example, in the last six years individual container fees at the privatised Port of Melbourne have increased from AU$35 to AU$191.

That’s come at a massive cost to Melbourne businesses and the people of Melbourne.

Now Auckland’s economy and people are at the same risk of losing out. It’s time to speak up.

As many Aucklanders as possible need to stand against this disastrous proposal. The council has to consult on this and you can have your say right now. Just add your details in the form and hit send.

Privatisation of the port will:

Put control of, and profits from, this monopoly infrastructure in offshore control

End a significant revenue stream for the council (Port profits) for a generation

Risk the substantial increase of costs on Auckland businesses and the people of Auckland

Lead to substantial increases in infrastructure costs and congestion as more freight is transported into Auckland by road.

If you live in Auckland – make sure you have your say.

Note: this form is for feedback on only the question of the privatisation of the port. To make comment on other areas of the Council’s long term plan such as environment and regulation please click here.

The information provided via this form will be used for the purpose of providing your submission to the Auckland Council and will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. The Auckland Council privacy statement is here.

12 comments on “Tell Auckland Council don’t privatise the Port ”

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  1. Ad 1
    18 March 2024 at 1:37 pm

    If anyone can remember the 1970s, we used to have major ships all along the Auckland waterfront.

    Each recapture of commercial marine space has been a win for the public.

    In 1999 the America's Cup pushed out old freight from a large chunk of waterfront. Wynyard Quarter started to open up.

    In 2020-2021 all the old oil tanks were cut out and removed from Wynyard Peninsula, and the land capped and partially remediated. Again America's Cup was the accelerant.

    Privatising the remaining port operations is another way of running down the business and then squeezing out commercial marine space, and letting the public really take it over.

    On balance I don't see this as bad.

    • KJT 1.1
      18 March 2024 at 1:47 pm

      Extremely foolish.

      Given the need for more, not less, environmentally and economically more efficient coastal shipping.

      Privatisation of ports, puts shipping at even more of a disadvantage compared to heavily subsidised trucking.

      While there is a case for rationalising the entire NZ port system, such as building an Auckland port at Orere Point, (Which would need to happen before Waitamata is reduced to passenger and coastal shipping) that will not happen with fake competition between privatised ports. Just like power, they will be run entirely for short term profit for shareholders.

      • Ad 1.1.1
        18 March 2024 at 3:13 pm

        Coastal shipping is a minor and narrow sector. If Auckland's port ceased there are plenty of other ports available in Tauranga and Northport, and the inland Hamilton port.to integrate. No one is ever going to build a new sea port.

        Auckland's port is already a fully commercial enterprise.

        Why should taxpayers prop up coastal shipping for private trading when clearly trucking and rail have done the job more efficiently for decades?

        • KJT 1.1.1.1
          18 March 2024 at 5:36 pm

          You have no bloody idea.

          Coastal shipping pays it's own way, including paying the artificial profit levels imposed on infrastructure/ports. Roads are not expected to make a profit. Also Ports have a requirement to make an additional artificial opportunity cost, on land values which roads do not.

          We are propping up private trucking firms to the detriment of more efficient modes.

          And now National is compounding it with a further 25 billion plus in roads to maintain to subsidise the trucking industry. How much productive land does that use.

          There is no way trucking can compete with shipping long distance without subsidies. Rail, where that is most efficient, has been destroyed in favour of much more costly trucks

          Then there are the environmental considerations. 30 times less emissions than trucks. 10 times less than rail.

          Take away the direct and indirect subsidies for trucking, and the extra costs imposed on coastal ships, we would rapidly see which is really “efficient”.

          • Darien Fenton 1.1.1.1.1
            19 March 2024 at 5:58 am

            +1

          • Ad 1.1.1.1.2
            19 March 2024 at 3:47 pm

            Whether coastal shipping pays its way or not is immaterial.

            Since the mid 1980s almost no-one has used it. It takes about 3% of the load now. When the Cook Strait ferry and its rail transit capacity stopped after the Kaikoura Earthquake, barely anyone noticed, and Kiwirail profits were unaffected.

            Your argument such as it is, is like saying if there were complete public funding for hydrogen trucks or steam trains, everyone would shift to hydrogen trucks or steam trains. Amazing golden unicorn deep-nostalgic pie-in-the-sky.

            Even the most hard left government in recent years – the last one – didn't bother supporting coastal shipping more than a token $30m in the NLTP. That ought to give you the flogging dead horse signal.

            Give it up, everyone else has.

            • KJT 1.1.1.1.2.1
              19 March 2024 at 8:36 pm

              How to say in several different ways, that you haven't a bloody clue about shipping.

              Don't know where you got 3% from, but that is total rubbish.

              After the Kaikoura earthquake Lytelton/Auckland shipping took the freight that road and rail could not.

    • alwyn 1.2
      19 March 2024 at 2:30 pm

      "On balance I don't see this as bad".

      On this I would agree with you. Why do we need a largely container terminal in the centre of a city? When you talk about the 1970s we must realise why there would have been so many ships around. Nowadays international cargo is all in containers. The ship comes into port, unloads and then loads containers and is then gone on the same day. In the early 1970s they weren't like that.

      The first container ship came to Auckland in 1973. Prior to that the ships stayed for weeks at pier type wharves. That is why there were so many ships in port. It took forever to get cargo off and on the ship.

  2. randal mcmurphy 2
    18 March 2024 at 7:10 pm

    hah. cui bono. I bet laxol and brown have already earmarked share parcels to their mates

    • Ad 2.1
      19 March 2024 at 3:48 pm

      In the words of the prophet Shania Twain, "It's a fine piece of real estate and I'm gonna get me some land"

      • SPC 2.1.1
        19 March 2024 at 8:47 pm

        Heh the last school land sold for housing by the 1999-2008 government – before Clark closed the programme down, was by a park – and it was the school that Russell Coutts went to (I had no problem with recommending it be sold – so long as it was the last).