The Rena. A Neo-Liberal failure.

Kia-ora

Nearly two weeks ago now a container vessel grounded on Astrolobe  reef near Tauranga, New Zealand.

Shipping accidents like the Rena are entirely at the door of Neo-Liberal economics.

The foreseeable results   of Globalisation, de-regulation, the endless search for the cheapest, the socialisation of risks and the privatisation of benefits..

Tired, overstressed, low paid  crews,  cheaply built and maintained ships, inadequate or ignored regulation and excessive workloads are the norm at sea.

Flags of convenience exist entirely so that shipping companies, and shippers, can reduce the costs: of corporate and income taxes, safety  standards, operating standards, crew conditions and wages and build standards of shipping.

They allow a competitive race to the bottom to see who can become the cheapest.

There is no reason whatsoever to use a flag of convenience if you intend to operate a vessel to a high standard. There would not be any cost savings.

The constant struggle to maintain cheaply built ships, designed and built for a 15 year life. Is bad enough when they are new.  5 or 10 years  beyound their design life , keeping them going is a 24 hour a day job.

Low wages, mean that high quality well trained crew find other work ashore or in higher paid work like the oil industry.

Masters and Chief engineers are often the only properly trained and skilled members of the crew, with the numbers made up of cheap labour with dodgy qualifications.

It is common for crew to be on board working shifts with less tha 8 hours off a day for more than 9 months.

Training standards are variable, with a noticeable drop in the standard of training, even from first world countries.  At the same time crew numbers have been dropped so there are not the personnel available to babysit and train.

Seafarers are expected to rest in ships with levels of noise and vibration that would have been totally unacceptable thirty years ago.  Ashore in NZ it is illegal to get people to work, let alone sleep, in those conditions

In New Zealand, Masters who refuse to sail because of broken equipment or rough weather and crew members who refuse to falsify rest hour,  maintenance, safety  and leave records are protected by our employment laws.

A sacking for those reasons, in New Zealand,  would be a legitimate case for unjustified dismissal..

 On FOC ships  they are sacked or their contracts are simply not renewed.

The worst of it, since the 1980's and Governments cave in to the farming lobby on Cabotage, in NZ, even local shipping companies, whatever their intentions , are also cutting standards to compete with cheap overseas shipping.

Offshore drilling Safety??

Kia-ora


Maritime NZ have a road show going around the country with a proposal to make things cheaper for the offshore oil drilling industry.

Current requirements for STCW/SOLAS certification for crews and the vessel on oil rig tenders may be relaxed to allow inshore qualifications up to the new within 200 miles of the coast “Near sheltered waters limit”. About the same as allowing someone with 200 hours in a Cessna to drive a jumbo jet.
I.E. Off the East Coast or in the Great South Basin.

Oil rig tenders are supposed to be the stand by vessels for rescue and firefighting for the rigs.


STCW is the minimum requirement for international vessels. It is already compromised by ship owner interests. Attempts to relax requirements below this level are not going to increase the safety of offshore drilling.

Especially in light of the Coastguard findings in the US that lack of knowledge of stability in ship and rig firefighting at the scene may have contributed to the Transocean rig sinking.

I think this shows the Governments real level of commitment to environmental safety.

On the foreshore and seabed.

Kia-ora
I strongly believe all foreshore and seabed should be commons. None should be in private hands and none should be salable because a future right wing Government decides.



"The Greens are confident that if we lay aside our fear and anger it is possible to reach agreement about a system that recognises Maori Customary title, prevents it from being turned into individual saleable title, provides for all New Zealanders to have access to the beach provided they respect it, and puts in place a range of measures to ensure the values we all cherish on the coast are protected.
It can only happen through rebuilding trust and good will. The heritage of the Commons is one of Europe's gifts to our cultural imagination; the Customary tenure of iwi and hapu is an indigenous taonga. Together, they can give us a shared appreciation of a sustainable relationship with our environment."

Foreshore and Seabed

Kia-ora

“It’s disappointing that John Key has put nothing in the proposal to stop owners of private title restricting access to or selling the foreshore into foreign ownership.”

Exactly. Do it to every one then we can all retain the foreshore and seabed as commons.

NACT are fine with the Maori party/aristocracy claiming veto/ ownership rights because they know they can then buy Maori “elite” off to put fish farms and mines anywhere they like.

This needs a lot more thought and discussion.

If Maori agree that putting all privately owned foreshore and seabed into “commons” Crown ownership/public ownership is acceptable then this may be an answer.