Tom Roud, Alliance Party candidate for central ward in this year's Christchurch council elections, says some councillors have ‘conveniently short memories’ when it comes to the port of Lyttelton.

“Whilst the Council may have set up a structure through Christchurch City Holdings Limited that maintains an ‘arm’s length’ relationship with port management, that doesn’t mean our elected representatives shouldn’t be able to step in on our behalf if things are going awry,” he said.

Mr Roud continued: “there are precedents for this – during the very disruptive and acrimonious industrial dispute of 2018, I know councillors were talking to unions and I don’t doubt they were talking to management. After that dispute was settled both unions and management got a very clear signal that industrial relations had to change and under the previous CEO they did”.

“Going back further, the last time the idea of selling off the port was floated our elected representatives engaged with unions and were led to understand the level of resistance such a move would generate. This was, in part, driven by concerns about the disastrous consequences privatisation would have for health and safety. Councillors were under no illusions an already questionable health and safety performance would arguably get worse,” said Mr Roud.

“More recently, during COVID the value of public ownership of such a strategic asset was demonstrated. Port management and the workforce were really clear that keeping goods moving safely across the waterfront was the priority, not short-term profitability. That view didn’t just fall out of the sky. Public ownership means accountability to us, the voters and ratepayers, let’s keep it that way,” he said.

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