Ports of Auckland Drama

All throughout the news at the moment, is the ongoing drama going on at Mechanics Bay where the MUNZ (Maritime Union of New Zealand) workers are striking against the Ports of Auckland. The strike has been going on since last month and is taking a toll on the Auckland economy. Fonterra and Maersk have already decided to stop using POAL (Ports of Auckland, Ltd) and move goods through the ports in Tauranga and Napier. 

Now, it's not that the dockers are making very little money, with $91000 per annum an enviable salary, along with flexible working conditions. Their outrage is actually from the fact that four contract workers have been discovered working at POAL, despite the unionized workers outnumbering them 80 to 1. The union wants to have a monopoly on the supply of labor to POAL, and have refused a 10% pay increase to stick to that idea. Even my mother said they were fools to reject that kind of pay increase, at a time when no one else in the economy is seeing anything like that.

Back and Forth

Over the last few weeks, POAL and MUNZ have issued press releases and statements publicly to try and sway people to one side or the other. Most people are backing POAL and think of them as rather generous, or are generally pissed off that the port is closed; while die hard lefties are sticking to their union comrades to the bitter end despite the cost and the embarrassment. Cr Chris Fletcher of Auckland Council has also issued her own statement on behalf of the council, voicing their concern over the dividends the port was paying to the council, and the effect the port closure is having on Auckland. 

POAL is currently 100% owned by Auckland Council. The funny thing about where the allegiances lie for Auckland Council, is that mayor Len Brown is a leftie, and the reason that the council isn't taking charge of the situation and looking after their own asset, is because Brown must be torn over what to do about the port, and the workers. As much as he can support the striking workers, his job as mayor is a commitment to the people of Auckland and the council, and he must take things from POAL's perspective.

Privatization - The Solution To So Many Problems!

Len Brown, like his right-wing mayoralty adversary, Hon John Banks, supports the construction of the Auckland city rail link, an expensive rail connection from Britomart Transport Center in the city center and the Westbound railway line. Most Aucklanders support the project inherently, but the question is always how to pay the billion dollar price tag. If Len were smart, the Council could find the capital by following the National Party policy of mixed-ownership of public assets, by selling up to 49% of POAL out to the market.

This is a fantastic asset to buy shares into, being a local company that is highly successful and necessary to the economy. It is an Auckland landmark, a local employer, has great expansion plans, and should be worth a great deal. The council will lose 49% of the $3million dividends it receives from the port, but won't have to try and save up for the project itself. The Port of Tauranga Ltd is listed on the NZX50 and is among the 50 biggest companies in the country. The land value of the Mechanics Bay port alone is $235 000 000, and the total value of the site is $348 000 000. There is serious money in this asset. Applying the mixed model of ownership (MMO) to POAL could free up a great deal of capital, in which the council promises to invest the money in local public projects, such as the city rail link. 

As for the strike, a barrage of angry investors would be better at taking charge of the port situation than a confused Auckland Council. A stinging article in the Herald by Damien Grant says that 

"Gibson [CEO of POAL] should sack the entire workforce and start again. At $91,000, there will be no shortage of applicants, even if he has to fly them in. He will not because his political masters will not let him."

True that. Of course, the issue is that CEO Tony Gibson is doing the best he can in this situation, his hands are tied by Auckland Council, who really needs to step up and own this problem. They are supposed to own the port on behalf of Auckland and its ratepayers. Without finding a satisfactory solution to the problem, the council is allowing this drama to carry on and let the Auckland economy get kicked in the nuts. Hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions of dollars of business, and the livelihood of Aucklanders depend on the port; and the Council is doing a disservice to its city by prolonging this drama.

Tory Morphine

An article in the Herald reminded me of how 2011 played out. Martyn Bradbury has alluded to this a few times, but usually as part of scathing attacks on everything to the right of Stalin himself. The article discusses how the British government under Tory (Conservative) leader David Cameron plans to cheer people up in Britain, a country facing severe economic austerity and its usual depressing grey and miserable weather. The 2012 Olympic Games in London, with the influx of tourists and celebrations will provide a suitable distraction from the doom and gloom in the UK at the moment. The parallel here was the 2011 Rugby World Cup that played out just before the election, which many criticized as distracting people from political issues that needed to be addressed.

Doom, Gloom… and Grey

I remember being in the UK in the 2008-2009 winter where an MP was very harshly criticized for saying she saw 'green shoots of recovery' in the British economy. The public seemed to have an attitude that everything with a price tag was inappropriate in a time of recession and financial difficulty, so spending and investment dropped markedly. Amongst the closure of many small businesses upon the loss of their credit lines was the household name and retail giant Woolworths, which saw around 800 stores close in just the time I was there. The receivers tried getting as much money as possible back, shop fittings and fixtures like shelves and lightbulbs were sold. It was a stab at the British psychic, and the big warning of how real the recession was. The huge problem was that people thought the way to get out of recession was to spend and invest less, which is basically the opposite of what needed to happen. Business can't grow with falling demand, declining investment, and scarce credit. 

Distraction or Celebration?

Before you decide which, the question to ask first is whether Britain is in need of either. The answer is most likely a yes, the more that people dwell on negativity, the more it grows, especially in the cool cloudy climate of Britain. People need to see signs of positivity, prosperity, growth, and the vision of a future in order to continue. The economy, like people, need a future to aspire to in order to continue putting in any effort. Something surely needs to spark some economic positivity to get the ball rolling, and the Olympic Games look like a good idea. It's when huge swathes of London undergo immense regeneration and gentrification, when the city is totally swamped with tourists who are very ready to part with plenty of money, when people watch feats of athletics and sports and share in the successes and efforts of the competitors. In fact, the simple notion of having so many competitors in the games is reminiscent of a healthy market economy. 

Government Input

While indisputable that the Olympic Games will improve morale and spirits significantly, the real question is what role the government will play in organizing this colossal event. How much will they spend? It comes down to a very stringent cost-benefit analysis. In New Zealand, we apparently spent more on running the RWC than we brought in, a net loss to the country. The British government is taking special interest in the Olympic Games and is pouring millions of pounds into the event, apparently doubling the budget of the opening and closing ceremonies, to £81million or NZD$160million. To ensure the games truly provide as an economic stimulant for growth, the games cannot incur a loss, even in the short term. Even if the investment pays off in the long run, it can all be sabotaged if word gets out that the country spent more than it earned hosting the event, as Britons would be skeptical that the games were of any success. If the Tory government wants to see this through, the project must be economically profitable, as it will stack up as a sign of the growth that Britain achieve. Even a small profit to the economy will show that the investment in Britain can appreciate in value. 

I'm quietly confident that with careful planning and considered spending, the Olympic Games will be a celebration of Britain and a stimulus to the economy. The Conservative-led government in Britain has proven itself reasonably successful so far, and is theoretically capable of pulling this off for the benefit of Britain. Failure to do so will be an embarrassment to the country, the government, and leave Britain even further in debt and financial despair. The least it can do is provide a distraction and a boost to national spirit and morale in the same way the RWC was to us, the right investment and it can surely become the catalyst for economic success.

The December of Our Discontent

New Zealand has had a pretty dull December if we want to be honest with ourselves. The MetService promised us a warm humid summer under a La Niña system, where it's just given us a cold and rainy one. As much as I love the MetService, I guess there's only so much trust you can extend to a state-owned company. If I wanted a rainy summer, I would have gone to Singapore, any excuse to go there would be fine though!

Most of us (politicos) have all been in post-election hangover for much of December, with the only politics left to watch consisting of the who-gets-what in the National coalition government, and watching the Labour Party begin the election losers infighting. Three Davids turned into two against one, with David Parker withdrawing his bid in favor of supporting David Shearer, who won. For Shearer's sake, he shouldn't be too happy that he's won, he's basically inherited the biggest political mess in the country and should be whipping some of his inept colleagues into shape. Helen Clark dished out a good deal of whipping, maybe that's their key to getting back into government. 

Other changes have included me getting a new URL address for this site, and the domain name came with a free Google Apps subscription, and I still have absolutely no idea how to use it. I do like how it calls me the 'super administrator.' Not as cool a title as 'Governator' perhaps, but awesome nonetheless. 

January is going to be a bizarre interim month for political stuff anyway, with parliament not sitting until February or some shit. The mainstream media political news reporters will be splitting straws for news right now, and soon the shit-for-news will be the norm until something good happens. Stuff has already published a joke prediction list, which Kiwiblog has analyzed. 

With American politics heating up slowly before the 2012 presidential election, discussion about the Democrats' and Republicans' campaigns is becoming topical here. The Brotagonist has organized a Students4RonPaul Auckland group, which I'm sure he'll blog about plenty as the plot thickens in the Republican candidacy. The story-scarce summer will probably turn much of the attention over to this, the Iowa Republican primary will be a headline very shortly. 

Hopefully January's weather will pick up anyway. Still waiting for a summer of good food, good drink, good music, and some sun!

New Address

You may have noticed that things have changed a little here. I've finally cleaned up the old URL (website address) and got a nice flash (pricey) new one.

moderationblog.com - it's just got a ring to it, don't it?!

Hopefully this makes it easier to get to for some people. Apologies though if it upsets RSS feeds or bookmarks, you can still get the feed from the new name and bookmark the page.

The domain name came with a year's subscription to a whole lot of Google services. Shit know what they do or how they work. Will figure it out though!

2012 - New Year

Happy new year everyone!!

Like any first day in business, we shall go over the agenda.

My commitments to this blog:

• Make an effort not to write anything tl;dr (too long, didn't read)
• Keep the posts to once a day at most, once every 3 days at least
• Keep up with all the news as it happens, which I'm now doing with RSS feeds
• Add more pictures, people like pictures...
• Maintain the 'constructive criticism' policy, the one that doesn't apply to Winston First

Your commitments to this blog:

• Comment, join the discussion!
• Tell your friends to read it and shit
• Subscribe, and read ALL the posts!

Feedback of any sort is appreciated, if you've got something to say - please do! Enjoy the summer, even if it is pissing down with rain out there, the port workers are all on strike, Winston First is back in parliament, and the price of smokes just jumped!

Oh well, stay cool :)