Keep Our Port Public

You can now send an automatic email message to Port of Napier CEO Garth Cowie to tell him that you think his company has a responsibility to ensure secure local jobs at the Port of Napier.

International trade union website Labour Start are promoting this email campaign at their website - send a message here!

Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) shares have closed at a record high amidst renewed interest in the port sector and speculation of ports merging.

LPC shares yesterday closed 8c higher at 248c, a new peak in their 12-month range which saw them as low as 190c. Shares in South Port, based in Bluff, closed 10c higher at 250c, equalling this month’s record peak.

Port of Tauranga rose 14c to 699c, just off the top of its 12-month peak of 700c.

Read full story here.

by Murray Horton

Watchdog 112 (August 2006) ran a very detailed cover story on the successful campaign to stop the Christchurch City Council from selling off the Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) to Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong Kong – “Lyttelton Port Company Sale Dead In The Water: We’ve Won The Battle, But Not Yet The War To Keep Our Port Public”, by Murray Horton, which can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/12/01.htm Read Full Post

You are invited to the inaugural public meeting of the Keep Our Port Public Otago Branch. Read Full Post

Dear Members of the Christchurch City Council:

I am president of the All Japan Dockworkers Union, an organization of dockworkers in Japan. On behalf of the All Japan Dockworkers Union, I hereby request that the City Council does not allow the sale of any shares it owns on Lyttleton Port Company to Hutchinson Port Holdings of Hong Kong or Hutchinson to operate the port terminals. Read Full Post

The Keep Our Port Public coalition, which is spearheading the campaign against the Christchurch City Council’s (temporarily thwarted) proposal to sell the Lyttelton Port Company to Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd of Hong Kong, has laid detailed complaints against the Council with both the Auditor-General and Ombudsman. Read Full Post

An article by Murray Horton from the April 2006 Foreign Control Watchdog

In February 2006 the City Council of the “People’s Republic of Christchurch” dropped a bombshell. It announced that, via Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (the holding company for all the city’s trading assets) it would bid for the 31% of the Lyttelton Port Company that it does not already own. Read Full Post

I have been asked to give a global overview of what is going on with ports. And as I am the only speaker from the coalition organising this public meeting and this campaign, namely Keep Our Port Public, I will also be speaking on its behalf. KOPP is made up of a number of different organisations and individuals, all with the common goal that is so clearly spelt out in our title. Read Full Post

by Murray Horton

Only a year ago the Mayor was quoted (Press, 14/3/05) as saying: “It is good news for ratepayers because the money the Council gets from Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) means rates are up to 18% lower than they would be. It shows the Council was right not to sell the assets when people like the Business Roundtable called us the People’s Republic of Christchurch”. But now he is enthusiastically in favour of the Council, via CCHL, selling half of its stake to Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong Kong. Why has he changed his mind? The Council has absolutely no mandate for this.

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CAFCA is a member of The Keep Our Port Public (KOPP) coalition, which has launched a petition, directed at the Christchurch City Council, urging that it not proceed with its plan to sell half of its stake in the Lyttelton Port Company to Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd of Hong Kong, nor to any other foreign or New Zealand company. It simply urges the Council to retain the Port Company in public ownership. Read Full Post