April 07, 2021
Safety shambles sparks call for port boss sacking
A strong call for Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson to step down or be sacked over the port’s appalling safety record.
It’s coming from Independent Māori Statutory Board deputy chair Tau Henare and his podcast sparring partner Shane Te Pou, both former union organisers, along with First Union national Secretary Robert Reid, in a letter they are delivering this morning to the board’s Fergusson Wharf headquarters.
It comes after a stevedore fell two metres through a rusted hatch on a ship, just days after an independent health and safety review said significant improvements were needed at the port.
Mr Te Pou says Mr Gibson’s claim he was unaware of the safety issues until they were raised by a review is unbelievable.
Mr Henare says the deaths of two workers and a member of the public in accidents at the port on Mr Gibson’s watch means he has to go – along with board acting chair Bill Osborne.
"How many chances, how many deaths do you have to have before you take responsibility. If Gibson doesn't go then it falls on the chairman of the board to say 'you’re out, you’re gone, we’ll get somebody else,’” he says.
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