Port move: Key v Joyce
For nine years in government Steven Joyce was one of the most influential figures in Sir John Key’s Cabinet but now the pair disagree on whether Auckland’s port should move.
Key has joined former political foe and three-term Labour prime minister Helen Clark, in backing a social media campaign supporting a NZ First plan to close Auckland’s council-owned port and relocate it to Northland.
Joyce has called it a ‘‘hugely expensive poorly-argued diversion’’.
Lobbying is ramping up as the Cabinet prepares in December to consider a government-funded working party report recommending the $10 billion project occur within 10 to 15 years.
The creation of the working group was a win for NZ First in the 2017 coalition agreement with Labour but the Government has made no commitment this term to do any more than consider the group’s report.
While its final version remains confidential, pro-movers have leaked details such as the recommended timeframe, and that if the Auckland and Marsden Point port companies can’t agree commercial terms within a 12-month period, then the Government should legislate to force the move.
The Waterfront 2029 social media campaign has been created through the Stop Stealing Our Harbour lobby group.
The group spokesperson, Michael Goldwater, said the campaign would build on social media in the weeks ahead, to demonstrate strong support among Aucklanders for the proposal.
Steven Joyce
‘‘The real opportunity to unlock the full potential of a worldclass city like Auckland rests with relocating the port. I fully support this sensible initiative,’’ said Key in a statement published on the campaign’s Facebook page.
Joyce, who held portfolios including transport, infrastructure and finance, as well as being National’s campaign strategist, had a blunt view on shifting the port to Marsden Point.
Helen Clark
‘‘It is simply the wrong location,’’ Joyce said in an opinion column for Stuff, published on the same day that his former boss’ contrary view was made public.
‘‘It simply makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to reduce the competitiveness of Auckland and the upper North Island in this way,’’ said Joyce.
He said Northport was too far away from the Auckland market and infrastructure to Northland, such as a four-lane highway, should be built before reconsidering the port question in a decade.
Helen Clark in her statement to the campaign said the move would be a win-win for both Northland and Auckland.
‘‘It would provide regional development and employment benefits for Northland and could realise benefits for the development of Auckland as a world-class city,’’ Clark said.
There has been a flurry of consultancy reports over the past week, two of them questioning the credibility of the economic case argued in an analysis commissioned from Ernst and Young (EY) for the working group in October.
Consultancy NZIER assessed EY’s work using Treasury criteria and listed 13 findings which it considered either ‘‘surprising’’ or ‘‘concerning’’.
NZIER said that when EY produced the ‘‘Port Future Study’’ for Auckland Council in 2016, Northland ranked only 12th on the list of potential relocation sites.
Consultants Castalia said the true extra cost of relocating Auckland’s port, and building the necessary infrastructure, could be nearly four times EY’s estimate.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would not be drawn on the next steps, or even if there would be any, after Cabinet considers the working party report.
‘‘I am not going to make commitments beyond receiving the final report because we need to see what evidence has been compiled, and what the report tells us,’’ Ardern told Stuff in October.
‘‘It simply makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to reduce the competitiveness of Auckland and the upper North Island in this way.’’
‘‘It would provide regional development and employment benefits for Northland and could realise benefits for the development of Auckland as a world-class city.’’