About NZSF
Role and Activities
The New Zealand Shipping Federation represents New Zealand ship owners and operators, both nationally and internationally. It is a voice for New Zealand shipping. It performs a number or important roles, including:
Shipping Advocacy
Public policy decisions about the likes of transport investment, maritime training support, maritime safety and environmental regulation all have an important influence over the competitiveness and fortunes of the shipping industry. Part of the Federation’s business is to monitor policy developments and ensure Ministers, government officials, select committee members, members of Parliament, regional and district councillors, amongst others, are aware of the shipping perspective when making policy decisions.
Often this advocacy role will be in response to proposed policies, such as changes to the Maritime Transport Act or introduction of the Emissions Trading Scheme. Sometimes this advocacy role is more proactive and strategic, intended to draw attention to important transport and shipping issues and opportunities.
Representation and Networks
It is a member of several advisory bodies in New Zealand, including the Maritime Sector Reference Group and the Oil Pollution Advisory Committee. In addition to formal relationships, the Federation works closely with many transport agencies and organisations, business and employee groups – for instance, Maritime New Zealand, the Ministry of Transport, the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics, the Maritime Union of New Zealand, the Merchant Services Guild, port companies, the Maritime School of New Zealand as well as the Australian Shipowners Association.
The Federation provides a forum for its members to come together and discuss issues of mutual interest. It meets formally as a group several times a year, but there is almost daily communication between the Executive Director and member companies.
Information and Research
The Federation acts as a information and news hub for its members, disseminating information from a range of sources – from international organisations like the IMO, ICS and ISF to local organisations such Maritime New Zealand, Parliament and the media. In turn, the Federation generates and distributes its own information to key organisations, the media and the wider public. This includes commissioning expert research, making submissions, discussing shipping with the media and presenting to conferences and other audiences.
NZ Coastal Shipping Sector
New Zealand’s domestic coastal shipping sector consists of three main components: (1) interisland ferries, (2) specialist bulk carriers and (3) general freight. The fleet supplying these services consists of 13 ships operated by seven different companies. These are: Interislander, Strait Shipping, Pacifica, Silver Fern Shipping, Holcim, Golden Bay, and Coastal Bulk Shipping.
The coastal shipping sector accounts for more than 4 million tonnes of freight annually. This represents about 15% (tonne-km) of the national freight task. This does not include freight carried on the Cook Strait ferries.
A significant feature of the NZ coastal shipping sector is the repositioning of containers. It has been estimated that more than 70% of all container movements between NZ ports is made up of empty containers being shifted mainly to exporting ports.
A Brief Federation History
The New Zealand Shipping Federation has a long history, but its role and place within the New Zealand maritime sector has evolved a great deal over time - the gradual but underlying change being a shift in focus from industrial issues to broader policy and industry advocacy work.
In 1906, ship owners formed the New Zealand Shipping Federation to succeed the short-lived Auckland Shipowners’ Association. In its early years, it was a small, parochial body, often sidelined by the industry heavy-weight, the Union Steam Ship Company. The Federation lobbied harbour boards and the government for port improvements and legislative changes, but its priority business in those days was industrial - the maritime trade union and the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act.
In 1917 the Federation moved its headquarters to Wellington to be closer to government. It was heavily involved in the 1922 seamen’s strike, and from then on was used more actively by the bigger shipping lines. While industrial negotiating remained core business, from the 1920s and the 1930s the Federation also grew concerned about competition from trucking firms and from the state-owned Railways Department.
In 1944, after hiring secretarial services from the Employers’ Federation for decades, it set up its own office. The post-war years were busy as the shipping lines renewed their fleets and as centralised wage bargaining absorbed an increasing amount of the executive’s time. So overwhelming was the industrial relations work that for some years the Federation was known as the New Zealand Shipowners’ and Maritime Employers’ Association (Inc).
From the 1960s, competition from railways began to bite hard, and Federation membership shrank as long-established lines withdrew from shipping. This modal change was followed by a political one in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, which freed the Federation from hands-on involvement in industrial negotiations. Since then the New Zealand Shipping Federation has concentrated on industry issues such as maritime industry regulation, ports and strategic transport policy work, notably the government’s recent ‘Sea Change’ strategy for growing coastal shipping.
A full history of the New Zealand Shipping Federation is currently being researched. It will be published and available next year through this website.