Politics or practicalities?
COMMENT: The current chief executive of the port of Melbourne, Nick Easy, was appointed to his post in February 2014 moving into this role from his former position as chief executive of the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Service Board (MF&ESB) where, his CV states, “he was responsible for leading an organisation of 2,300 staff through a period of sector reform while it continued to deliver emergency services to the Victorian community and beyond”, writes Mike Mundy.
Time will tell if he is as successful in “putting out fires” at the port of Melbourne as he was at the MF&ESB. The current “fires” in the port of Melbourne centre on disputes with two of its key tenants, Victoria International Container Terminal (VICTL) and Patrick.
The situation in the port of Melbourne does beg some strategic questions. The port of Melbourne is currently in a whole port privatisation process where the Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) will effectively hand over its role to a private entity.
It is an interesting question to speculate what the main criteria for Mr Easy’s appointment was – his experience in sector reform or his port sector experience which he gained in 13 years of previous service at PoMC including in the role of executive general manager of port capacity and executive general manager of the Channel Deepening Project. No doubt those that appointed him would say both factors but the experience in sector reform is convenient given the state government’s aspirations to lease the port and realise a cash return of up to $7bn. The plans for the privatisation of the port were confirmed shortly after his appointment in May 2014.
But times have changed and there is a distinct contrast between the actions of the port of Melbourne today compared with the time when Mr Easy headed the Channel Deepening Project. When the Channel Deepening Project was live there was a strong justification for it on the basis of keeping up with liner system requirements, delivering economic freight rates to cargo shippers and generally consolidating Melbourne’s position as the No 1 container port in Australia. Today, however, PoMC is coming under fire for not keeping pace with what the market is telling it regarding vessel size and the deployment of larger vessels.
Will this prove to be a case of politics ruling the day rather than practicalities?