Editorial: Why Wayne Brown scrapped plans for a Ports of Auckland lease

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown outlining the new deal for Port of Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

EDITORIAL

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s decision this week to scrap plans for a 35-year lease for Port of Auckland while keeping the land in public hands was driven by the simple equation of not having the numbers to proceed.

With a majority of councillors opposed to the lease and a narrow majority of submissions on the proposal in the council’s long-term plan giving it the thumbs down, the mayor brokered a $1.1 billion deal with management and the Maritime Union.

Brown has long had a fixation with Port of Auckland, having chaired the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy working group in 2018-2019 that proposed moving port operations to Northport, near Whangārei.

Port of Auckland will continue to be operated by the current management.

On the hustings in 2022, Brown said the port occupied $6b of prime waterfront land and made a campaign promise to deliver $400m a year to its owner, Auckland Council.

Once in office, he wrote to the board Jan Dawson instructing the board and management to create a plan for public use of the port land from Queens Wharf to Bledisloe Wharf, resulting in plans last year for an open-air seawater swimming pool, aquaculture, an exhibition centre and “Te Ao Māori showcase centre”.

Picking up on work started under former Mayor Phil Goff, the mayor jumped on the idea of creating a wealth fund for the city with the proceeds of the lease, estimated at between $2b and $3b, and the council’s remaining airport shares, worth about $1b.

Brown became the cheerleader for the fund, saying it was a smart way of diversifying assets prone to natural disasters and a prudent step to secure the council’s financial future.

Aucklanders could be excused for being a little confused about the mixed messages from the mayor on the port, whose latest pronouncement was the $1.1b of port profits over 10 years exceeds the projected returns from investing the proceeds of a port lease by $172m.

This will be achieved by improvements in productivity and increased port charges

The latest plan raises questions. Will the wealth fund, named the Auckland Future Fund, be viable with just the proceeds of the remaining airport shares? Is it wise to more than double container landing costs to boost port profits? Does it make sense for the council to have all its eggs in two baskets?

There is a silver lining in maintaining the status quo. Keeping the port business and waterfront in public ownership means Aucklanders will be more engaged when it comes to expanding the public realm on Waitematā Harbour, and, longer-term, in any work to move the port.