Ship bid ‘bungled'

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32636, 18 June 1971, Page 3

Ship bid ‘bungled '

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON,

June 17.

It was a national disgrace that, nine months after the announcement that the Union Steam Ship Company was to be sold, local industrial interests who wanted to retain some local interest in this shipping service still could not obtain satisfaction from the Government, the Labour Party’s spokesman on industries and commerce, Mr W. W. Freer, M.P. for Mount Albert, said today.

He was referring to a statement by Sir Reginald Smythe, managing director of N.Z. Forest Products, who said that unless local firms could get a suitable arrangement with the Government they would drop the T.N.T. proposals. “The Government has bungled this whole matter,’’ Mr Freer said.

“From the outset it made it clear that it would not lift a hand to encourage New Zealand acquisition of suitable sections of the Union Company’s local activities. It readily accepted the fact that an Australian company would take the company over and was, and still is, reluctant to give any realistic support to maintain a substantial interest in this important shipping service. “The Labour Party has for many years advocated the local ownership of some of our shipping services. Party policy has called for the establishment of a shipping corporation, linking the Government, producer boards, industry and involved workers in a wholly New Zealand-owned shipping line. “When the Union Company became available for purchase, the Government should have taken the initiative and accepted the responsibility of organising a corporation tb negotiate with P. and O. for the acquisition

of specific sections of the company’s operations. “Such a move would have given a largely State-financed corporation established managerial and crewing facilities, whilst enabling the new organisation to drop uneconomic vessels. In other words, it was possible to fulfil Labour’s election policy with a going concern, which could have been quickly reorganised. “Government indifference, however, has resulted in protracted negotiations with a group of seven New Zealand companies, all of whom are interested in export markets, but whose financial resources are so strained as a result of Mr Muldoon’s financial policies that they are unable to fin-

ance the take-over without Government aid.

“It is, therefore, essential that the Government should declare itself in definite terms, rather than to have one Minister assuring the group that there is no limit to Government aid, whilst Mr Muldoon waits to consider a proposal on its merits. “While the Government is procrastinating about finance, the Minister of Transport should also give an assurance .that our coastal shipping is not going to be run down by T.N.T., leaving internal freight services to his own Railways Department or to road haulage companies financially interested .in T.N.T.”