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I think we’d be biting off our nose to spite our face if we turned our back on this overseas company wanting to take over the running of the port of Lyttelton.
Because this could be exactly the type of in-road to foreign investment that the government has been banging-on about but hasn’t yet managed to pull off.
Tell that to the unions, though. Which are all antse about executives from global port operator DP World being in Christchurch and wanting to do a deal to manage the port here for as long as 30 years.
The port company and the port’s owner - Christchurch City Holdings Limited - aren’t saying much. Other than acknowledging speculation over what they describe as “a potential proposal” involving DP World and the port company.
But the maritime union isn’t holding back - making all the usual noises. Which you would expect it to make.
Saying it would be a terrible move. Not just for Canterbury. But a bad move for the South Island and the whole country.
It says profits would head overseas and it must not happen.
But before you fall for all the noise, I want you to think about Fremantle, in Australia.
Because it is just noise. Saying something should stay locally-run for the sake of it staying locally-run is noise. There’s nothing the unions are saying about this that convinces me that the port company and the council which owns it shouldn’t, at the very least, think about it.
You might remember Fremantle from the 1987 Americas Cup. It’s also a major port. A major port which has been operated by the same company that wants to run Lyttelton port for the past 20 years.
And we need to be looking at Fremantle before swallowing all the rhetoric regarding this potential deal at Lyttelton.
Because, in December last year, the company started work on an $18 million rail connection at the port. To move more freight by rail - from 22 percent to a third of the freight it handles.
The company itself paid for this.
What’s more, it plans to have spent $1 billion upgrading port infrastructure in Australia by 2028.
Which is exactly what it could end up doing here.
And, if the port company and Christchurch City Holdings are in fact having these negotiations, then that’s exactly the sort of stuff they should be talking about.
They should be saying to DP World, if we agree to let you run Lyttelton port for the next 30 years, we want to see the same infrastructure investment you’re making in Australia.
Remembering too that Lyttelton needs to spend as much as $900 million on its expansion work.
And, if they did manage to get that kind of commitment as part of any deal, then we’d be on to a winner.
Not that I’m drinking all the Kool aid. Because there have been issues in Fremantle since DP World took over 20 years ago.
The unions over there have accused it of putting profits ahead of jobs. But those kinds of accusations are made about the Lytelton port company already.
The unions in Fremantle aren’t happy about DP World wanting to use more automation. Of course they wouldn't be happy about it.
Thing is, though, unions here are going to be concerned about all those things irrespective of who is running the show.
So why not have an outfit with the money behind it running the port and investing in the port in a way we can only dream about?
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