Row erupts over port plan
Business leaders and politicians are among those who have signed an open letter opposing the Mayor of Auckland’s proposed long-term lease to operate the council-owned port.
National’s deputy leader Nikki Kaye, Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, Sir Stephen Tindall, Lady Pippa Blake, Sir Ralph Norris and writer CK Stead are among those urging councillors to oppose transferring 77 hectares of land to an overseas corporation.
Mayor Wayne Brown hit back at the opponents, claiming they haven’t even read the proposal they are complaining about or spoken to him about, reports the NZ Herald.
Brown wants to lease the port’s operations and cash in the council’s remaining airport shares to create a $3 billion to $4b wealth fund called the Auckland Future Fund while freeing up some port land over time.
The fund is a cornerstone of the council’s draft long-term plan for which consultation closes on March 28 before being voted on in May.
The open letter opposing the lease has been issued by Stop Stealing Our Harbour, the lobby group that prevented two wharf extensions at Port of Auckland eight years.
Stop Stealing Our Harbour has four key concerns. The past three major port studies have concluded the port is unsustainable where it is. Keeping the port in its current location until 2060 imposes billions of dollars in road and rail costs onto a congested network.
Prolonging the status quo until at least 2060 prevents significant social, economic and environmental benefits from turning the port land into an urban environment. And the proposal contains no mention of the environmental and social impacts of the port staying where it is.
Architect Julie Stout, who chairs Urban Auckland, says it’s disappointing that Brown is championing a proposal that is unsustainable and counter to Auckland’s long-term interests despite having chaired the 2019 port study that recommended the port move to Whangarei.
However, Brown says: “I haven’t proposed locking the port into its current footprint. The proposal includes two wharves being transferred and then the 14.5ha Bledisloe Wharf within 15 years.
“You can’t go too much faster than that because the market can only take so much development land. That’s all achievable with a lease, which separates port operation from land ownership.”
The mayor’s idea for the port lease is uncertain because a narrow majority of councillors are opposed to it, reports the NZH. The Maritime Union of NZ has also come out strongly against it, dubbing it “privatisation”.
