By Victor Billot The crisis at New Zealand’s main port came to a head in early 2021, with a damning report into health and safety coming on top of ongoing congestion and major delays in an automation project. Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson resigned in May 2021, after major ructions and public anger made his position “untenable.” Auckland City, the owners of POAL, and the Transport Minister Michael Wood have made it clear they expect a different path in the future. The Ports now faces a long and difficult path to get back on track. The question remains how one of the country’s most important transport hubs got things so badly wrong. Systemic failings Ports of Auckland management have been slated in a major report that found its health and safety culture had systemic failings. This was just one strand of multiple issues that have seen the Ports struggling in recent times.
Systemic failure: how things went wrong at Ports of Auckland
The release of the independent report into health and safety came after several deaths at the Ports in recent years, and was commissioned by the owners of POAL – Auckland City. Following a disastrous press conference in the wake of the report’s release, Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson went to ground, refusing to answer questions despite being the head of a major publicly-owned enterprise. A stopwork meeting of MUNZ members at the Ports of Auckland in April this year voted no confidence in Tony Gibson as CEO, and a community delegation delivered a letter asking that Tony Gibson resign to Ports of Auckland management.
THE MARITIMES
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