Stuart Nash: Napier port belongs to the people

Stuart Nash

Recent talk about a possible sale of a stake in the Port of Napier is concerning.

On discussing ways to fund the port's required expansion, the port chairman has said: "I'm not going to rule out anything yet, given I don't know the size of the challenge yet, but [a partial sale] is not something that is being aggressively pursued."

The CEO said: "It is not about whether we can afford it, it is about whether that is the best way of funding", while the port's owner, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) chair has said: "You have to keep an open mind and look at all the options going forward."

I have been around long enough to know that when a politician or a business leader couches words in the way that sounds vague, the people should be worried.

Not one of these key stakeholders actually denied that a stake in the port would be sold or is not an option. This is wrong.

Around three years ago, the HBRC sold the income from its residential leasehold portfolio to ACC for fifty years for the paltry sum of $35m.

The income of around $1.7m per year had been used to supplement our HBRC rates.
Doing a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation using conservative estimates on inflation and increases in property prices, I estimated that the HBRC had under-sold the housing portfolio by around $100m.

By the way, the HBRC still retains the cost of managing this portfolio, so a double-hit to the ratepayer.

The HBRC is the 100 per cent owner of the port through its 100 per cent-owned subsidiary the Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company (whose website is woefully out-of-date and missing vital information, for example, where is the 2015/16 annual report and other key docs that should be available to the enquiring public? Never a good sign).

Owning a regional monopoly investment like the port is like owning the toll-gate on the only bridge into town. Why would we even consider selling a share in such a substantial and highly profitable asset that is growing at a phenomenal rate?

This country is full of stories of public entities which have sold shares in assets for a one-off cash injection but ended up millions of dollars worse off over the medium to long term as dividends flow out to the private sector while the public miss out.

What I can say to the port's board chair, the CEO and the chair and councillors of the HBRC is that any resolution concerning the sale of the council's largest asset is not a decision that should be made behind closed doors without the input from the port's real owners: The people of Hawke's Bay.

My very strong recommendation to all concerned is that if the sale of the port is ever seriously considered as an option, the final decision must either go to a binding referendum or held off until the 2019 Local Body elections when those seeking a place on the council can clearly state their position on the sale of the port and the voters can judge their stance accordingly.

I, for one, am dead against any proposed sale of any stake in the Napier Port, and if a proper and democratic process is not followed (like the appalling closed-door sale of the leasehold income) I will organise Napier residents to march in the streets.

After all, there is only one port and if we sell it, or even a share in it, we will never ever get it back.

It belongs to the people of the Bay, as it has for generations; and this with whom it should stay.

- Stuart Nash is the MP for Napier.