Kerre Woodham: Where do we put a bigger, better port?

Let me take you back to the halcyon days pre-Covid. The biggest story around was Shane Jones and New Zealand First promising to make Northport the port of the future that New Zealand not only needed, but deserved. The port in Auckland was no longer fit for purpose. Northport would be the biggest infrastructure spend in New Zealand's history. It would revolutionise and revitalise Northland. There would be jobs, loads and loads of glorious jobs. The streets of Kamo and Kawakawa and Whangarei would be paved with gold. We were so close to pressing go on the project and which is not to say there wasn't pushback, trucking industry leaders, infrastructure planners, port operators wanted an evidence-based debate on the Upper North Island’s port strategy, not Shane Jones's rhetoric. And they were concerned the official study focused on New Zealand First’s preferred option of moving the port of Auckland to Northland. They said, well, let's have a look at a new ‘Greenfields’ port at the Firth of Thames, that could handle things long term. Oh, the discussion raged on talkback with the fors and againsts. Then all of a sudden Covid arrived, and the biggest infrastructure spent in New Zealand's history was shelved while we spent billions and billions of dollars fighting a virus.  

But now Northport is back, and let's face it, it was never going to go away. Having a port in the middle of congested Auckland City doesn't make sense for the future, and surely there is no more room for the Port of Tauranga to expand. They've been turned down permission to expand or extend at Sulphur Point Wharf. So, the people of Tauranga and in The Mount are like, come on, you're big enough. According to the Environment Court, there's no room for Northport to expand either. Northport had applied for consents from the Northland Regional and Whangarei District Councils for a 13 hectare eastern extension, which would have been used as a dedicated terminal to accommodate future freight growth. The Environment Court said no, because of the significant adverse effects on cultural values of tangata whenua and the law on the loss of recreational values and public access to and along the coastal marine area. So now Northport’s appealing that and I totally understand. They need to have a plan for growth and expansion, but we need a nationwide plan, not a local one. It needs to be across the board.  

And I totally understand that the Far North used to be the centre for import and export for the North Island, Dunedin and the South. Far North was always a place things came to and went out of. The Far North needs to be revitalised, it needs a shot in the arm, it's been neglected for far too long. Totally get that. But my main concern around Northport, well, with all due respect to the tangata whenua and the loss of recreational values, is how the hell do you get freight to and from Northport when the road's closed all the time? What are you going to do then? The Brynderwyns can't cope with the traffic it has now, where are the hundreds and hundreds of heavy transport vehicles going to go when the road is inevitably closed? The Brynderwyns were closed for 58 days in 2023, 17 weeks and counting this year with no guarantee that it's going to stay open the next time there's a deluge.  And come at me with your narrow-gauge rail, because I vaguely remember the narrow-gauge rail arguments and our trains aren't big enough to take the containers. Yes, they are, said a few other train trainspotters and the trainspotters debate raged in 2019. But that's going to be a heap of infrastructure as well to upgrade the train tracks ready for the sort of freight that would be coming into and out of Northport.  

So yes, I would love to see the Far North revitalised. I would love to see Northport extend. It makes sense, it's close to some of the biggest markets, but surely not until we have the infrastructure to be able to take the trucks. And yes, there's a four-lane highway planned but let's see if that can stay open, because that beautiful, beautiful stretch of road that we can travel on sometimes, yeah, that's great but it doesn't stay open is there any guarantee a four-lane highway will? So where do we put a bigger, better port? Tauranga is struggling to expand. You can't get to Northport for 17 weeks of this year. Auckland's in the middle of a congested city, I can't imagine how much it costs with all the time wasting. Napier, Timaru, come back Dunedin? The Firth of Thames? What's the answer?    

CORRECTION: This piece incorrectly refers to the Environment Court declining the port expansion.  It was not the Environment Court, it was independent commissioners.

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