Wayne Brown, seen here at his October 28 inauguration, has hit back at claims from Ports of Auckland and reaffirmed his expectations. Photo / Jay Farnworth
Wayne Brown, seen here at his October 28 inauguration, has hit back at claims from Ports of Auckland and reaffirmed his expectations. Photo / Jay Farnworth
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says he won’t back down from plans to overhaul port operations, despite pushback from the company’s chief executive.
He responded to claims from Ports of Auckland boss Roger Gray about New Zealand’s supply chain balance being on a knife-edge.
Gray said a profitable port subsidised Aucklanders’rates by tens of millions of dollars every year and added: “Rather than creating new port operations, like some suggest, we first need to thicken the pipeline”.
But Brown told the Herald it was for the council, not Ports of Auckland, to decide the waterfront’s future.
And he rejected Gray’s suggestions the port was subsidising ratepayers, saying the opposite was true.
“Mayor Brown won the election with over 180,000 votes on a clear promise that the status quo on Auckland’s waterfront cannot continue, and to progressively return publicly-owned waterfront space to the people of Auckland,” a spokesman for the mayor said.
“Since then, the chief executive of the port company has confirmed that the status quo means Auckland ratepayers subsidise importers.”
Auckland Council was the port company’s 100 per cent shareholder and the council’s governing body had unanimously agreed on its expectations, Brown added.
Brown’s office said there was an expectation the port company would co-operate with the mayor and council’s work next year.
That would include working with central government to plan for consolidating port operations, and the return of waterfront space “to the people of Auckland” in phases from 2024 to 2039, he said.
“Auckland Council, as shareholder, will decide the future of Auckland’s waterfront space, not the port company.”
Brown’s office contested Gray’s suggestion car carriers in future would have to leave Northland for Auckland every 150 seconds, every day.
“While the facts in the port’s statement are contested, it seems to suggest that closing the port’s waterfront car-import operations would remove 24 car-carrier trucks from Quay Street every hour - or 576 every day.”
That would significantly reduce congestion for Auckland motorists in the central city and on motorways, the mayor added.
The mayor’s office sent a letter of expectation to Ports of Auckland (POAL) chair Jan Dawson in a letter dated December 21.
He set out the council’s key expectations, including moving container freight to rail, and returning waterfront land to the public.
“The plan must improve Aucklanders’ access to the waterfront, while preserving port activities in Auckland,” Brown said.
“POAL are to cooperate and collaborate on the development of that plan as part of a council-led team,” the mayor added.
“This includes providing council with information about how it will deliver the plan, and information on any contractual obligations that need to be considered and managed.”
The letter said POAL was not to undermine the council’s plan, and should not publicly campaign against the council, directly or indirectly, through funding of external organisations.
Other expectations were for an improvement in worker health, safety and wellbeing, improved financial performance against specified financial measures, and the delivery of free cash flows and dividends to Auckland Council.
Brown said the council wanted POAL to work with it and KiwiRail to move all container freight to rail as soon as possible, to reduce the city’s congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
Brown’s response came after Gray said it was foolish if the country failed to invest in a resilient and cohesive nationwide supply chain.
“It’s idealistic to suggest we can, with the click of a finger, remove and relocate one of these vital components elsewhere and quickly,” Gray wrote in the Herald.
The POAL boss said if Auckland’s vehicle operation moved to Northport near Whangārei, a car carrier truck would have to leave every two-and-a-half minutes from Northland to Auckland, around the clock.
“Without an overarching plan, closing an integral part of the supply chain at short notice such as Ports of Auckland is guaranteed to cause a bottleneck elsewhere,” Gray added.
Ports of Auckland CEO Roger Gray says the company is keen on building a profitable port operation and return a dividend to the council. Photo / Dean Purcell
Questions about the port’s future have resurfaced amid debate about broader national and global supply chain problems.
But relocating cargo operations was a low priority for some major operators including Mainfreight, who discussed the issue shortly before Christmas.
Mainfreight said the debate was “becoming boring” and peppered with pointless posturing.
“There have been so many studies and plans. Not one of them has been adopted, or for that matter, has been good enough to be implemented,” Mainfreight group managing director Don Braid told the Herald.
At least 25 official studies and reports involving the port have been conducted, including a Government-commissioned study headed by Brown.
That study in 2019 found the port’s CBD freight operation was no longer economically or environmentally viable, and should be moved to Northport.
But another Government-commissioned report followed, recommending other locations.
