Tamihere proposes selling port firm
Mayoral candidate wants to keep waterfront land
Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere has proposed selling Ports of Auckland to a private company but keeping its land in public hands. Tamihere said the best way to future-proof the prime 77ha waterfront site was to split the council-owned business from the land and go to market with the business.
Under his proposal, the new port owners would lease the land from council at a commercial rate for up to 25 years to develop an agreed exit strategy.
“The Ports must move, but exactly where it moves to will be part of ongoing discussions.
“But I have to give clarity and direction so we can all plan for the next 25 years.”
Tamihere said a timely exit would open the waterfront and provide a cash injection to ease ratepayers’ costs.
The sale would reduce risks of the port’s relocation, give council funds from the leased property (council currently gets a dividend of about $50 million a year from the port), open up 77ha of land for ratepayers to decide its future, and establish a “transition fund” to support port workers into new jobs, he said.
Tamihere did not know how much the port business could sell for, but suspected the Port of Tauranga would be “in boots and all” and interest would come from as far away as Singapore.
Mayor Phil Goff called his rival’s policy “bizarre”, saying it is the worst possible time to sell the port business when it has no clear future, nobody knows where it is going to move to or who will pay the cost of new infrastructure and relocation.
He was referring to a ports study set up by the Government to look at how the existing ports at Auckland, Marsden Pt and Tauranga could be reconfigured to provide the best options for long-term growth.
The first of three progress reports from a working group in April suggested an inland port in West Auckland and a vehicle importing and servicing centre at Northport among 12 potential transport investments to improve freight handling in the upper North Island.
“Who is going to buy the company when they don’t know where its operations will be in 10, 15, 25 years? It will be selling it at a bargain basement price,” Goff said.
Tamihere said he has met major stakeholders, including port executives, the Maritime Union and transport groups to brief them on the policy. No one opposed it, he said.
He also raised the prospect of congestion charges for trucks using the port between working hours of 9am to 5pm to overcome “chronic ports traffic congestion”.
He said Auckland Transport forums and the major Ports carriers agree congestion is a major problem and are identifying ways to work through a self-regulatory system.
Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett said excluding heavy trucks from Auckland city between 9am and 5pm would have a negative impact on all New Zealanders.
“Why would you increase the costs of transporting goods in and out of New Zealand’s major city? This proposal would definitely add costs to all the goods in people’s lives that are transported by trucks — which is pretty much everything,” Leggett said.
Goff also slammed the idea of congestion charges during the day for trucks, saying the busiest time for truck movements was between 10am and 2pm outside of work hours.
Tamihere, who is challenging Goff’s bid for a second term, is promising to “shake up” the way council runs, turn Eden Park into the city’s main venue for sports and major events and sack the board of Auckland Transport.
Other candidates include businessman John Palino, who is standing for a third time, Joshua Love, John Lehmann and Craig Lord.