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A bitter dispute between two Hauraki Gulf ferry operators has escalated into threats of trespass notices and a potential claim for $1 million compensation.
The latest bout between Australian-owned SeaLink Travel Group and locally run Waiheke Shipping came before the High Court yesterday.
Both companies offer passenger, freight and vehicle transport services to Waiheke Island and around the gulf, operating from the wharf facilities at Half Moon Bay in east Auckland.
SeaLink claims Waiheke has been using its time slots at Half Moon Bay. At a cost of $400 for five minutes, it says the bill for that time now stands at $1 million.
It also says Waiheke has no right to lay over its vessels on the beach next to the wharf.
But Waiheke Shipping half-owner Brett Subritzky flatly denies he's doing anything other that what his licence with the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) says he can do.
He claims SeaLink's moves are anti-competitive. "We're a low-cost service to the island - they're trying to knock us out so they've got the monopoly."
Yesterday in court SeaLink argued that its own ARTA licence, and its contract with the government agency to manage the Half Moon Bay facilities, gave it the right to issue Waiheke Shipping with a trespass notice.
It told the court it had already tried to evict its competitor from the ramps, but Waiheke simply ignored it.
Justice Rhys Harrison reserved his decision over the trespass notice, but made it plain to SeaLink he thought any talk of compensation should be directed at ARTA, not its competitor.
He said as the licensor ARTA was responsible for enforcing licence conditions at Half Moon Bay.
SeaLink came into the market in 2004 when its South Australian-based parent bought Subritzky Shipping, the sea transport company set up by Brett Subritzky's grandparents 50 years ago.
It initially renamed the business Subritzky SeaLink, and expanded it.
Subritzky was operations manager of the original family company but had no financial interest in it.
He left Subritzky SeaLink after an employment dispute, and set up Waiheke Shipping in competition with the Australian operator in April 2005.
His cousin Michael Moore is still a director of SeaLink.
This year SeaLink sought an injunction preventing Subritzky from using his family name in connection with his commercial activities.
Subritzky said yesterday that Waiheke had stuck to its four daily time slots at Half Moon Bay. But he conceded there had been delays when a Waiheke Shipping vessel did not move from one of the two ramps.
"They've had a vessel on one ramp, we've come in, offloaded and haven't moved, and why should we? There's another ramp, they've chosen not to shift their boats.
"They're saying we shouldn't stay there, but that should work both ways, they've got ships that sit over here all day on the ramps."
Of the dispute over the beach, Subritzky said both companies had been laying over vessels there and SeaLink had no management rights over the area below the high-water mark. "The bottom line is it's public property at Half Moon Bay and we've all got to get on."
ARTA yesterday said it was working with both operators to manage effective operations at Half Moon Bay.
