Just how despicable are these corporate bankers – and their council minions?

It’s a rhetorical question I know but further confirmation these parasitical life forms are as bad as we always knew came this week.

In December 2021, under former mayor Lianne Dalziel, Christchurch City Council commissioned a report on the performance of Christchurch City Holdings Limited (CCHL) which holds and manages the council’s shares in Christchurch Airport, the Lyttelton Port Company, Enable fibre broadband company and the city’s service maintenance company City Care.

And who did they ask to do the review?

Investment bankers of course. This time it was Northington Partners (see the PS at the end of this blog for an earlier example)

And what did Northington Partners say? The council should sell its assets – at least up to 49%. A bogus projected 70% increase in rates over the next 10 years was used as a shock/horror figure to create fear and panic to drive asset sales. It’s a simple Business-Roundtable-textbook approach, the same approach being used by new Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown for asset sales there.

Needless to say none of the new mayors or councillors advocated asset sales before the election – knowing how deeply unpopular they are with the public. But as soon as their feet are under the table they are like kids with a dollar coin burning a hole in their pocket. They can’t wait to privatise so the wealthiest New Zealanders can have access to the lucrative dividends from these monopoly blue-chip companies – at the expense of the rest of us.

The so-called “independent review” by Northington Partners is anything but. It is speaking on behalf of a sector which for decades has been trying to “deepen Aotearoa New Zealand’s capital markets” through the privatisation of government and local body assets.

It is Northington Partners corporate clients who would be the beneficiaries of council asset sales.

Included in their report, and confirmation they have never done an honest day’s work in their lives, Northington Partners blames the “highly unionised workforce” for claimed underperformance of the Lyttelton Port Company.

The joint media release from the Maritime Union of New Zealand and Rail and Maritime Transport Union shows just how venal, shallow and nasty the NP report is:

Joint media release Maritime Union of New Zealand – Rail and Maritime Transport Union FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday 9 December 2022

Workers at Ports of Lyttelton have strongly rejected an attack on their work in a privatisation report to the Christchurch City Council.

LPC workers are members of the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU).

A report on Christchurch City Holdings Limited and its companies compiled by Northington Partners was released this week.

The report states LPC is underperforming – and suggests this is due to a “highly unionised workforce.”

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says there are around six hundred port workers in Lyttelton who deliver to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury, the majority being LPC employees.

Despite the report stating productivity issues are ‘outside scope’ and were ‘not analysed’, it offers a view based on ‘initial observations and stakeholder feedback.’
No sources for these observations or feedback are provided.
Mr Harrison says this is unacceptable.

He says a reference to the Port of Tauranga as a preferred employment model shows an absolute lack of understanding of serious problems in the ports industry.

Mr Harrison says the outsourcing employment model at Port of Tauranga has had very poor outcomes for workers.

“One of the worst impacts has been employees of contracting stevedores having unhealthy and dangerous shift patterns, which has disrupted family life, health and safety.”

“The implied support in the report for contracting out labour – obviously to reduce wages and conditions – contradicts the Corporate Social Responsibility model that CCHL organizations must abide by.”

Mr Harrison says these contracting out issues have been widely covered in the media and recognised nationally in 2022 in two ways.

A recent Employment Court decision requires a large private stevedore in Tauranga to change its operations to acknowledge workers ‘availability’ to protect their work/life balance and right to family life.

In addition, the national ports industry has just announced national ports health and safety guidelines which focus on the impact of fatigue due to shift work.

Rail and Maritime Transport Union General Secretary Todd Valster says he is unimpressed with the logic used the report which is clearly a roadmap for privatisation.
“We need to maintain our local assets and defend them against the privatisation agenda.”

Mr Valster says the report makes an error in trying to draw simplistic comparisons between Lyttelton and other ports like Tauranga, when size and many other variables influence outcomes.

“It is dangerous when people without a deep knowledge of the ports industry start setting themselves up as experts in port productivity.”

Mr Valster says the primary outcome for a port must always be whether it is serving its purpose as key infrastructure.

“The benefits LPC provides as a reliable import/export hub for industry are enormous.”

The Northington Partners report is typical of craven corporate bankers who aim to scratch every itch of their wealthy bludging clients.

We should treat their advice with the scorn it deserves.

PS: Lianne Dalziel had taken the same approach earlier in her mayoralty when she asked notorious privatisers Cameron Partners to go over the city finances and produce a report on the basis of which Dalziel wanted to “release $600 million in capital” – in other words to sell assets – to avoid what was claimed as a future billion-dollar budget blowout. The figures were bogus of course and after a spirited community fightback Dalziel backed down.