Every time some downtown restauranteur or retail or tourism guru suggests we move the main port of Auckland to Tauranga or anywhere other than its current location I wonder what planet they are on.
Last Thursday, lunching at Mikano overlooking the Fergusson Container Port, I was fascinated by the constant stream of containers in and out of the facility. And by constant I mean overwhelmingly busy with drivers queued in both directions to take their place in the orderly transfer of containers.
The majority of those containers both inward and outward come from the major industrial areas of New Zealand – right here in Auckland – with the industrial regions of Manukau at the forefront of these.
Those who would move the port to another part of New Zealand are clearly not thinking beyond their possible gain in recreational and tourist space along the waterfront.
It would appear likely that they have not considered the fact that New Zealand is a long, thin and exceedingly hilly country with a ridiculously narrow gauge railway and poor roading infrastructure.
If the majority of containers entering and exiting Auckland by sea are either filled or emptied (or both) in Auckland, where on earth is the point in having to truck them at least 200 kilometres from their point of entry/exit?
The Ports of Auckland are an integral part of Auckland’s and New Zealand’s economic strength. To dismantle the commercial port for some spurious pleasure ground smacks of poor thinking indeed.
We need to export goods and services to improve our standing in the OECD ratings. And, by definition, many of those goods will be bulky and require transport by sea. To have the ports close to the manufacturing and commercial heart of the country makes simple economic sense.And, even in terms of imported goods, it makes sense to have their port of entry in the midst of the major population centre of the country.
At a time when sea transport is experiencing a new importance because of its smaller carbon footprint and when the major carriers are seeking to rationalise the number of ports they service and increase the size of their ships, Auckland becomes ever more critical to New Zealand’s economic future.
Auckland has the Hauraki Gulf, the beaches and civic and regional parks for pleasure grounds. The addition of Queens Wharf to the central city waterscape from the Wynyard Quarter to Queens Wharf provides a marvellous gateway to the region and the city.
A working port is critical to the economic functioning of the Auckland region and New Zealand. Those who would give it away in order to create a pleasure palace have a very poor grasp of what makes our economy tick.
Yes, tourism is a money earner and yes, tourists bring foreign currency into New Zealand. But tourism is a fickle trade and we are always at the end of the world.
The infrastructure of our trading port is vital to the city and the nation.
• Elspeth Mount, CEO, GETBA
