The Green Party welcomes the Crown Review Office report into Moa Point, which made clear there were a multitude of failures that led to the disaster.
Rongotai MP and Infrastructure Spokesperson Julie-Anne Genter says that this incident highlights the difficulties of having private, for-profit companies running critical infrastructure.
“The release of the Crown Review report is a positive step towards understanding what happened at Moa Point, and it is a relief that Wellingtonians finally have this information.”
“The review into Moa Point identified that there were multiple, systemic failures. The outsourcing of public infrastructure to the private sector has internationally been shown to lead to the problems identified in the report; fragmented accountability, lack of oversight, loss of institutional knowledge, weak asset stewardship, limited risk visibility, confused lines of communication and too much reliance on contractors for asset condition information and operational data.”
“This highlights a fundamental tension within private-public partnerships. While councils are directly accountable to the communities they serve, private companies are not subject to the same level of public oversight.”
“The Moa Point disaster shows how important it is that we properly invest in our infrastructure. Successive local and central governments have failed to invest in our infrastructure for decades, resulting in situations like this.”
“It’s encouraging to see there are discussions about bringing the management of Moa Point in house by Tiaki Wai, and I encourage these steps be taken.”
“A Green Government would prioritise public ownership and sustained investment in critical infrastructure, to ensure strong accountability reduces the risk that environmental failures like this don’t occur again.”