John Tamihere's port policy on taxing trucks in Auckland CBD 'random and bizarre'

Tuesday, 14 May 2019

Mayoral candidate John Tamihere has announced he would sell Ports of Auckland's operation, but not the land, if elected.

A policy from Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere to tax and deter trucks from being in the central city in daytime has been labelled 'random and bizarre' by the industry.

Part of Tamihere's port election policy is to introduce congestion charges, if needed, on trucks from 9am to 5pm, including access to the port.

An aerial view of Ports of Auckland from the west.

'It's a policy without a strategy or a plan,' said Nick Leggett, chief executive of the Road Transport Forum, representing half of the sector.

'Good policy and evidence doesn't come out of a political campaign trying to attract public support.'

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Tamihere proposes selling the Ports of Auckland operation, but retaining the land, which a buyer would lease for 25 years.

The policy is based on the expectation that during that timeframe, a decision would be made to relocate the port business and free up waterfront land.

He also wants to reduce trucking on central city roads between 9am to 5pm to relieve peak-hour congestion, imposing a congestion charge on trucks if necessary.

'The centre of gravity in Auckland is the port, if you make it harder or more costly for trucks, you make things harder and more costly for every business and citizen,' said Leggett.

Tamihere had claimed support for the trucking changes from '50 per cent' of the industry.

He said he had not discussed with KiwiRail how rail could handle a larger proportion of freight in and out of the port.

National Road Carriers, which represents small and large trucking firms, said the policy 'lacked thought or evidence'.

'Our customers aren't open at night, so you'd have all the cost of double-handling,' chief executive David Aitken said.

'The port is already a 24-hour operation and there's still delays.'

Mayor Phil Goff said Tamihere's trucking ideas would achieve the opposite of what was needed to tackle congestion.

'There's already a lot truck movement at the port between midnight and 5am, and between 7pm and midnight,' he said.

'A large percentage of the flow out of the port is between 10am and 2pm, outside the peak.'

Goff said setting parameters to deter trucking between 9am and 5pm was 'dumb'.

The mayor said selling the port operation now made no sense while its future was so uncertain.

The government's Upper North Island Supply Chain working party was reviewing the future capacities and roles of Northport, Auckland and Port of Tauranga to see whether was feasible to relocate all or any of all of Auckland's trade.

'No-one knows what the [port's] future is – you'd get the worst possible price,' Goff said.

The future ownership of Ports of Auckland was considered in two council-commissioned reports in 2015.

Consultants Cameron and Partners, and EY, both weighed up the value of splitting the port company's operations from the ownership of the land, which would remain in council hands.

EY envisaged the lease revenue for the council could be similar to the annual dividend it receives from the port company and would forgo after a sale.

However, this was based on a lease running for 75 years, not the 25 years proposed by Tamihere.

Cameron and Partners thought lease income would be less than future dividends, and selling the port operation as a business could reap $588 million.

Both forecasts were prepared before a later study concluded Ports of Auckland may outgrow its current site by around 2055 and could be relocated.

Tamihere acknowledged it was not certain the port would move or that 25 years would be a long enough lease.

'You've got to be pragmatic, but you've also got to set a deadline,' he said.

The Maritime Union is on a list of stakeholders which Tamihere said had 'not opposed' the policy.

The union's Auckland branch told Stuff it had views that didn't match all of Tamihere's.

'It supports public ownership of the ports,' the Auckland branch secretary Russell Mayn told Stuff.

It also supported 'returning governance of the port company to Auckland Council who are the owners, and maximising the returns to the Auckland public to support future infrastructure requirements'.

The union was happy to participate in ideas that reduced congestion, while allowing the port to continue to serve the Auckland area, Mayn said.