Bruce Bisset: Napier Port sale all over bar the sharing

Bruce Bisset

Politics is the art of the possible, which generally means an argument is not about whether to do a thing or not, but by how much to do it and in what way. The sale of the Napier Port is a case in point.

Sure, the final decision has not yet been formally made, but everyone knows the regional council's intent is to sell and now all the various pieces of the puzzle are in place the go-ahead is a rubber stamp waiting to fall – probably late in May.

Shortly thereafter the public of Hawke's Bay will no longer be sole (albeit collective) owners of our port.

No-one should be surprised; since the rolling maul that is the process of divestment surfaced publicly mid-2018, it's been plain that barring unprecedented ratepayer opposition a sale was inevitable.

The failure to materialise opposition on such scale has helped justify the course.

The key differences between the Ruataniwha water storage scheme and the port are that it is much easier to sell something you already have than to make something new, and the latter also takes much longer to achieve.

More than two terms, in the end. Which – thanks to the groundswell of opposition that did finally arise to delay it – proved long enough to scuttle the RWSS by the simple expedient of voting out the majority of those in favour and replacing them with the current crop of councillors.

Who in contrast will manage to sell the port in less than a term, saving themselves the angst of fighting an election over it.

The decision might still bite them, but it'll be too late to stop the sale.

Funny how things work, isn't it?

In this case I imagine that post-election in late 2016 when councillors came together to discuss the way forward for the term, the new ruling clique made establishing an "environmental fighting fund" top of their agenda – but were flummoxed at how to finance it.

At which point someone probably casually mentioned they could privatise the port to create the funds.

Lo and behold, the port company directors proved only too eager to be privatised. The art of the possible, see?

And when heavyweights like MP Stuart Nash – who in 2017 had said it was "crazy" to think of ever selling the port – failed to speak up, and the worker's union was sidetracked into objecting to it being leased rather than sold outright, and everyone else bought into the skewed idea expansion had to happen and this alone enabled it, then the deal was sealed.

But the public interest has leavened things: the art of the possible dictated council had to retain a majority share, or there really would have been an uproar.

And credit to them for listening to strong advocacy from myself and other submitters to ensure council is directly represented on the governing board of the new listed port company.

Then there's that fighting fund, which should be well over $100 million when the dust settles. That's a big plus – one Messrs Graham, Belford, Beaven, Barker, Bailey and Kirton have staked their political futures on.

Whether they'll make good investments remains to be seen; and with RWSS-Mk 2 on the horizon, another change of guard could throw a large spanner into their best-laid possibilities.

* Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet. Views expressed are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.