Brian Rudman: Plenty of reason to praise last 20pc of ports ownership

For those of you still wondering why the need for 100 per cent public ownership of Ports of Auckland when the people of Auckland already own 80 per cent, let me just say, remember Westhaven Marina.

Just a year ago, 80 per cent public ownership was enough to stop the port company defying the will of most Aucklanders and putting the iconic marina up for sale. Eventually, to save Westhaven from foreign ownership and ensure on-going public access to this key waterfront site, Auckland City ratepayers, with some assistance from the Government, were forced to buy it for $54 million.

And let's not forget that earlier in the year, former mayor John Banks, who no one could accuse of having socialist tendencies, had plans to spend $400 million of ratepayers' money to buy key port company sites to ensure planned development at the city's front door. If the port company had been 100 per cent publicly owned a year ago, it's hard to believe either issue would have arisen.

This, to me, is the main reason to celebrate the deprivatisation of the port company. It brings the prospect of a planned and orderly redevelopment of the waterfront from the foot of the harbour bridge in the west to Mechanics Bay in the east.

Of course public ownership does not guarantee a good development outcome. You only have to gaze at the instant slumification of the old railway shunting yards in Quay St to appreciate that. But if any good can come from that disgrace, it stands as a salutary and very public lesson on the need for planned growth.

Not that the redevelopment of the Auckland waterfront lacks plans. There's a surfeit of them, and they're still coming out of the woodwork. The latest, due to hit the streets any day, is the port company's vision for the Tank Farm or western reclamation, that large tongue of land poking into the harbour north of Victoria Park.

The biggest vision statement in recent times, was the 2002, Auckland Waterfront Advisory Group plans for the western reclamation, jointly funded by the port company, Infrastructure Auckland, Viaduct Harbour Holdings and America's Cup Village. This is the one, you may recall, which included canals criss-crossing the tank farm.

In April 2004, after the port company signalled an intention to divest itself of non-core land assets, Auckland City and the regional council joined with the port company "in a joint visioning exercise for the whole of the waterfront".

After last year's local body elections, the ARC and ACC followed up with a waterfront political liaison group. Its draft vision, released in January for public consultations, failed to refer to the earlier advisory group exercise.

A final consultation draft was supposed to have been unveiled last month. But along the way, the decision was made that with only one chance of success it was more important to get it right, than to meet unrealistic deadlines. The new release date is September.

Meantime, from the sidelines, inner-city business lobby group Heart of the City has come up with its own plans, which involve an artificial island to the north of the Tanks Farm and the liberation of Queens Wharf for public use as, for example, a landmark exhibition hall.

Not that they're locked into that suggestion. Heart of City chief executive Alex Swney suggests another alternative could be to spend the $90 million proposed for the Auckland art gallery revamp on a completely new building, wharfside.

Of course coming up with great ideas is the easy bit. The difficulty we Aucklanders seem to have is with the follow-through. Sure, by rights, the return of the land to public ownership, should make its planned development easier. But we still have to agree to a plan, agree to how to finance the exercise, and agree to how we'll convert the dream to reality.

Many other cities, Melbourne for instance, have found transferring control to a standalone authority is the way to go. And perhaps it is. But for now I'll put that and all the other big issues to one side and just celebrate the promise, at least, of better outcomes, that the 100 per cent public ownership of Ports of Auckland brings.