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“We’d rather have ports not go and make their own arrangements and set their own rules,” Hipkins said.
But those arrangements are already in place.
“We are not going to change our position on this,” Matt Ball, a spokesman for Ports of Auckland, told Newshub. “We believe that it is very important to protect our staff.”
The minister does not want the foreign crew to isolate themselves for 14 days, saying that he does not want to interrupt the operations of cargo ships.
“If we said that all the ships that come to New Zealand have to float offshore for 14 days, they just wouldn’t come,” Hipkins explained.
But Ball says that’s just not the case, and it’s not how it works. All it means, he says, is that freight forwarders must plan for the crew’s arrival two weeks in advance.
Hipkins said the move Auckland ports have put in place will not increase protection at all, but again, the company disagrees.
“All we have done is basically introduce the same measures for the transfer of the crew that any person entering New Zealand must go through. [14 days in managed isolation]”Says Ball.
“Then it must be safe, because the government approved it.”
Ball says it’s about providing the best possible layers of protection for its personnel, but also for personnel in Pacific ports and beyond.
