Posts by Russell Brown
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Willie Jackson has handed POAL's PR team tomorrow's headline.
Helen Kelly et al have been consistent and disciplined on picket-line behaviour. Now he's calling for some biffo.
The tragic thing is, he undoubtedly believes he's helping.
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Just revisiting Fran O'Sullivan's January column in which she greets the dispute as foreshadowing privatisation. She seems to find it intolerable that democratically elected councils should have a view on the use of public assets.
But I think it's most interesting for the fact that it channels the case these people were making amongst themselves.
The Auckland Council doesn't directly drive Ports of Auckland.
Its 100 per cent shareholding is held through Auckland Council Investments Limited (ACIL) which in turn appoints the ports company directors.
This governance structure was carefully thought through and set-up so the ports company could operate in a commercial fashion without political interference by either the mayor or councillors at operational level.
ACIL is chaired by well-known businessman Simon Allen. Allen is a smooth operator. The former investment banker chairs the Financial Markets Authority and Crown Fibre Holdings.
Allen and his board reviewed the makeup of the Ports of Auckland board in late 2010. Rob Campbell, Liz Coutts, Richard Pearson and Wayne Walden were appointed as directors joining existing board members Graeme Hawkins and Andrew Bonner.
Pearson was subsequently elected as chairman. Pearson has extensive experience in port operations and investment around the world, returning to New Zealand following a long career with Hutchison Port Holdings Group, most recently as managing director, Hong Kong International Terminals Ltd (1996-1998) and managing director, Europe division, president ECT Rotterdam (1998-2007).
The Pearson appointment should have signalled to all but the deliberately obtuse Allen's intention that Ports of Auckland should mean business.
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Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to Luke Williamson,
The other day, someone from Whangarei described the proposed highway as Northland’s lifeline. If Northland is not allowed a rail connection or a highway, then they are being consigned to years more of being an economic backwater.
I confess, my view on the issue was refined somewhat by driving the present road both ways this past weekend. Yikes.
To be fair, Josh Arbury (who I think coined the term) has also written about the specific safety improvements the road needs -- he just rejects the economic case for the big project.
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Just been listening to Stephen Franks on the POAL dispute. He seems to regard the impending crushing of the union as a human rights victory on a par with the end of apartheid.
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From a TVNZ news story:
Amid the talks came a claim by the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) that major shipping line Maersk will not be stopping at Ports of Auckland while industrial action continues.
CTU president Helen Kelly said the ongoing employment dispute had become an international issue.
“Maersk has advised today that they will not be carrying containers loaded out of Port of Auckland during the current industrial dispute,” she said.
“It will stop calling at the Ports of Auckland until the dispute is resolved”.
Kelly said Maersk management are planning to meet with members of the Maritime Union to discuss the dispute.
However, Maersk said it was not aware where the CTU had received its information and was investigating.
If this is true, I suspect it's something POAL management was not counting on. This is getting messy for them.
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Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to Sacha,
The relationship between the Port and the Waterfront Auckland development CCO chaired by Bob Harvey would be interesting to hear more about as well.
Apparently Waterfront Auckland's major beef with Hooton's column was his scandalous assumption that they, y'know, worked together.
Which, lest I too receive a letter from a QC, they do not. Because council organisations working together would be just totally wrong.
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Just got Hooton's “apology” from behind the NBR paywall. Final paragraph:
Interestingly, my column attracted an overwhelmingly positive response. While words like “mafia-like” apparently risk misinterpretation, the fact is Aucklanders have very good reasons not to trust the council’s un-elected waterfront tsars with custodianship of their harbour, management of billions of dollars of ratepayer assets or even maintaining consistency between what they write in the small print of their plans with what they say when complaining to editors.
When Hooton’s damning Rodney Hide’s Super City design as anti-democratic, you really do know there’s a problem.
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Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to Paul Brislen,
Personally I’d shut down PoAL altogether and move the North Island’s main port to Tauranga. Currently they simply compete with each other, we duplicate the costs for little gain and could use the money from the sale of the land on the waterfront to pay for a harbour crossing/light rail link/free puppy for every household/venture of the day.
But that’s just me.
I still think Auckland should have a working port, especially if the alternative is yet more luxury apartments. But this needs some high-level thinking of a kind that is difficult to achieve when the various ports are trying to cut each other's throats, to the delight of Maersk and company.
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Hard News: The Mega Conspiracy, in reply to 3410,
I think the message is clear: Extend copyright now or else Ray Columbus will starve, 51 years after his death.
Boom!
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Well worth a listen: Nigel Haworth, Professor of Human Resource Development at the University of Auckland and former board member of Ports of Auckland on Nine to Noon.