Auckland Report

RUSSELL MAYN SECRETARY AUCKLAND BRANCH LOCAL 13

Here we are again, after ten years of insanity at the Port of Auckland and a new madness rears its ugly head again.

“Move the Port, sell the Port, return the land the port is on for restaurants and hotels” – anything but have a fully operational portal in Auckland to bring in the goods that Auckland relies on to run on a day-to-day basis.

I don’t get this. We have everyone commenting on the port operation and to cut to the chase many have very little to no experience and knowledge of what the port does – and the impact of not having a port would have on Auckland City.

The latest theory is we will shift all the cars to Marsden Point. Here we are with millions of dollars spent on the extension to the northern highway to Puhoi to relieve congestion, and now they want to stick a huge number of trucks on the road to transport cars back to Auckland.

It is not unusual to have over 800 vehicles per shipment. A car carrier truck can take between 5-6 cars per load. Divide 800 by 6 and you arrive at 133 truck trips from Marsden to Auckland.

Bad for the environment, bad for the quality of road surface, bad for congestion, and just think of the extra cost on ACC following the increase in accidents and injury.

I am sure holiday makers from December onwards will appreciate the delays and frustration due to the extra trucks on the road.

I don’t know how many car carriers we have available, but what I do know is that we don’t have the truck drivers to work on a new fleet of car carriers to meet the demand.

This whole plan does not make sense and will never make sense until the time we have an alternative method of moving the cars from Marsden to Auckland.

Then there is also talk about moving the entire port. This should be a doddle, we can do this overnight. The Manukau as a new site sounds good, I am sure the bar won’t be an issue. Or hang on, we can shift it to Thames, plenty of infrastructure to support a port there and a natural deep harbour. Resource consent should be easy!

Then another popular theory with the experts – why not just make Marsden Point the Port for Auckland? I think we have addressed this when looking at the issues with cars. There is currently no rail into Marsden, and a highway simply cannot take the extra traffic (congestion, pollution, road damage and safety.)

Auckland should stay as it is, with no increase to its footprint. We can use Marsden as a hub port for the increased volumes going forward and have a clean, green coastal shipping service delivering the containers from Marsden to all the domestic ports around New Zealand.

The returns from the Port to its owner by way of dividend has been dismal to say the least. But the blame lies solely with the previous port management and the board.

A kneejerk reaction to this abysmal performance would be a mistake. The Ports are under new management and there is a new board in place. This is the time to take a big breath and see if the dividend can return to where it was previously.

No wonder DP World are interested in buying the port. There is no competition in Auckland and the funny thing is ports seem to make a lot of money. DP World can sniff a bargain and they can smell profits.

There is no alternative to goods arriving and departing via ships. Both Tauranga and Auckland are close to full capacity, and going forward the top half of the North Island is going to need Tauranga, Auckland and Marsden.

There is plenty of space for the public on the Auckland Waterfront. The main working Wharves are Bledisloe, Jellicoe, Freyberg and Fergusson Container Terminal, these wharves are congested as the demand for goods across Auckland increases.

It was not long ago the Port of Auckland was considered the jewel in the crown. Common sense says that it still is, now and into the future it should remain as a core asset owned by the Auckland City Council so that rate payers in Auckland can enjoy the financial benefits of the port pumping money back into Auckland.

Our Union is more than happy to have the debate. We believe the future of the port is instrumental as the gateway to prosperity for Auckland and the upper North Island.

We challenge those voices who want to sell, move, redevelop, or redistribute cargo to provide alternatives to a port in Auckland to provide credible evidence for their theories.