The long running saga over the future of Ports of Auckland as an inner city cargo port has reached an important point with NZ’s coalition government agreeing “that freight operations on prime land in downtown Auckland are no longer viable”.

Ministry officials have been instructed to prepare plans to facilitate moving cargo operations elsewhere for the government to consider in early 2020. The decision was made after considering the final report of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy Working Group.

The Associate Minister of Transport Shane Jones has been a proponent of moving Auckland’s cargo handling operations to Northport, which is around…