All publicly owned entities, including ports, should be subject to public accountability and transparency requirements, but currently, port companies and their subsidiaries are excluded from Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act requests. This limits the ability of the public to hold port companies and subsidiaries accountable for their actions despite the fact they are publicly owned entities.

This Bill reverses the exclusion of port companies and their subsidiaries from certain rules that apply to council-controlled organisations in the Local Government Act 2002.

This will have the effect of applying normal public accountabilities to port companies, including the application of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, the requirement to act as a good employer, and the requirement to exhibit a sense of social and environmental responsibility by having regard to the interests of the community in which they operate.