The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131029
A VI EW FR OM THE C H A IR STICKS AND STONES – AND WORDS BY DAVID LEDSON, CHAIR OF THE MARITIME NEW ZEALAND AUTHORITY My response, too, has been shaped by a very positive meeting that Maritime NZ had last week with the NZ Maritime Forum. It was encouraging, and a delight, to sit around a table and talk courteously and usefully about things we needed to address to assure "safe, secure and clean seas and waterways." The "good vibes" from this meeting carried over into the following day which I spent at the Maritime NZ staff conference. In the afternoon we listened to Martin Snedden talk about the 2011 Rugby World Cup. One of the key things I took away was the motivational and inspirational power of ideas with which people can make an emotional connection. An associated concept is that of having "skin in the game." I reflected on whether we at Maritime NZ have been successful in getting the maritime community to engage emotionally with what we are trying to achieve, in general and in particular with MOSS and SeaCert. I'm not sure that we have been. In fact, the only emotional engagement that I have seen is from those who don't support the direction in which the major projects are moving us all. So I've been thinking about how we are talking about MOSS and SeaCert, and whether there is an "emotional idea" that might resonate with people. Was there an opportunity and need to move from a "bureaucratic idea" to an emotional idea? After a few hours of thinking I came up with the emotional idea that sits behind the rationale for MOSS and SeaCert: "To keep a smile on the faces of all those people whose loved ones go down to the seas and waterways to work and play." This is why Maritime NZ and the industry should work together, because it's right and it's worthwhile. Working together is so important that words cannot be allowed to get in the way of a relationship that needs, over time, to take on many of the characteristics of a partnership. The thought of bigger things at stake is why, when I think of the critical comments that prompted my reference to the surreal, I realise that the best approach is to acknowledge that I've read them and then to move on. I do know, though, that were they a speech on a marae, I might respond to it by referring to them in the words of the pepeha which says: He korero na tai timu – A speech by the ebbing tide. VIP.S84 A s I was thinking about what I could write about for this piece, a few possible subjects came to mind. There was the re-flagging of foreign chartered fishing vessels, what's happening with the various Rena reviews, or perhaps the great work being done by Maritime New Zealand people involved in our engagement with the International Maritime Organisation. The Funding Review or MOSS, or SeaCert also seemed like possibilities. These options were running through my head, but I was looking for a hook. Something that would enable me to write in a way that would entertain, maybe inform, and that would aim to be constructive. This latter point is very important to me, because I'm sensitive to the fact that the strapline of this piece is "A View From The Chair" and not "A Rant From The Soapbox." As I was firming up on something to put on paper, it struck me that I was in a situation that could be described as surreal. There was a large metaphorical elephant in the room. I realised that I was planning to write as though the particularly "hypercritical" stuff in the March/April issue of this magazine, directed at Maritime NZ, had not been written at all. It seemed to me that given my position as Maritime NZ Chair, the people in Maritime NZ would expect me to respond in some way, and not to act as though I hadn't read the magazine and registered the criticisms. They would expect me to move from the surreal to the real. After all, some of the comments were an attack on the reputation of the organisation and of those who work there, and while feedback is important, if we are to lift our game we expect the criticism to have the quality of being well founded. I must admit I was sorely tempted to "react." In part because passive territory is where saints dwell and I'm afraid my nature does not enable me to stay there for long. On reflection, I decided to go along with a conclusion from the "prisoner's dilemma" – "co-operation and trust wins and blind self-interest loses." The fact is that an effective relationship with the maritime industry is fundamental and of critical importance to Maritime NZ being successful, and there is nothing to be gained in compromising the "big picture" all for the short lived joy of one wild brush stroke. May/June 2013 Professional Skipper 27