Proposal ‘cynical’ politics

The proposal to shift the Ports of Auckland’s vehicle import operations to Whangarei is “purely a cynical political decision”, says used car business association VIA.

Chief executive David Vinsen said the industry had spent 30 years working with the port and shipping companies “squeezing out all the inefficiencies and costs” from the import process.

“Auckland was established because it has a good port facility

. . . and the vast majority of the market’s vehicles [go to Auckland] and down to the Waikato.”

Vinsen said moving the imports system anywhere else would add to costs, create distribution delays and add hundreds of trucks to the roads.

More than 300,000 vehicles land in New Zealand each year — about half of which are used. Vinsen said about 75 per cent are imported through the Ports of Auckland. Distribution of the vehicles currently involves 60,000 to 80,000 truck movements a year, he said.

A government-commissioned working group’s final report on the best way forward for the upper North Island freight and logistics system, including ports, is now with Cabinet ministers. The report is likely to say the Ports of Auckland is no longer economically or environmentally viable and its commercial operations should be shifted to the deep water port Northport near Whangarei.

The NZ First-sponsored study was a requirement of the party’s coalition agreement with Labour and is being championed by Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, who comes from Northland.

The chairman of the working group, businessman Wayne Brown, is a former Northland local body politician. An Ernst & Young financial analysis with the group’s interim report put the cost of shifting port operations north at $10 billion.

Vinsen said VIA’s members were pragmatic and entrepreneurial.

“A lot of money has been invested in it by the ports, by the shipping companies and by logistics companies to make it extremely efficient and cost effective.

“To disrupt it for a purely cynical political deal, well, you can take your own conclusions from that.”