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A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR REFLECTIONS ON THE RENA BY DAVID LEDSON David Ledson, the chairman of the Maritime New Zealand Authority, adds his perspective to the changes taking place at Maritime NZ A s I sat down to write this piece, many possible topics came easily to mind. However, in the end, I realised that in view of the magnitude and effects of the grounding of the Rena off Tauranga, a lot of people would expect me to share some of my reflections about our response. I do so being very aware that the response is not yet over, and that some significant challenges inevitably lie ahead us over the many months of work that will be required to bring "the Rena incident" to its conclusion. While there will almost certainly be a formal inquiry of some sort into the response, I believe four important principles are critical to an effective response to this sort of event. Leadership is key. In any significant event, many expect the response to move from a standing start to a sprint in virtually no time at all. Whether this expectation is realistic or not is actually irrelevant. It is still an expectation that responders must nonetheless exert every ounce of energy to meet. To do this successfully requires technical expertise and strong leadership, which in my view is more important, especially in the initial stages of the response. While technical expertise will deliver credibility, it will not by itself motivate and unite a group of people to the same degree as effective and inspirational leadership will in pursuit of a common purpose. It's about cooperating and coordinating. Any view that the response to the Rena grounding "belongs" just to Maritime New Zealand is wrong. Any event of this scale, by its very nature, is bigger than the agency which might be leading it. The typical response around the world to events like this is based on a team approach and depends on a mix of skills, experience and expertise from many people and agencies. This has been the case with the Rena response. It has involved people from central government, local government, emergency services, universities, community groups, iwi and hapu, non- government agencies, salvage companies and many others, as well as our own experts from New Zealand and around the world. Their success achieved in the response to the Rena grounding are compelling evidence of how well all of these people have worked together. From what I have seen first-hand over recent months, all of those involved are committed, passionate and enthusiastic about what they are doing. They are also focused on a common purpose – to deal as well as they can with the consequences of something done (or not done) by someone else. Furthermore, coming from an eclectic mix of organisations, they bring a range of organisational cultures ranging from tightly structured to less formal. In these circumstances, one of the most effective strategies for the lead agency as it sets a common destination for the response effort is to instil a "culture of cooperation". This means not focusing purely on "command" or trying too hard to tightly control the many and diverse work streams that exist. Instead, it means working hard to ensure the various teams are coordinated effectively to meet the goals of the response effort. The third important principle is that communication needs to One of the lessons we have learnt from the Rena is that we need to capitalise on community passion inform and engage. In the Rena incident it was apparent early on that the local community, understandably, wanted to be assured that the right things were being done to deal with the range of consequences of the ship's grounding. The community and local leaders wanted to be included in the "solution" and not simply be passive observers of a central government response. I assume these views will be characteristic of all similar incidents. It is important, therefore, if communications are to work effectively, that lead agencies understand the local political and social landscape so they are aware of the various stakeholder groups and their interests, relationships and favoured methods of communicating and receiving information. For example, some of these groups will favour the internet, others the newspaper, radio and television, or a combination of 30 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 VIP.S84