About us
Through our organisational strategy Te Korowai o Kaitiakitanga, we’re bringing together our aroha, work and skills to ensure we can operate more strongly as regulatory stewards of the maritime domain.
What we do touches the lives of many New Zealanders, as well as international visitors and sea-borne traffic – on a daily basis.
This is true whether you are a recreational boatie, a commercial operator, port authority, certified seafarer, or a regional council responding to an oil spill.
Our maritime environment is vital to New Zealand’s prosperity, security and social wellbeing – providing valuable employment, trade, tourism and recreational opportunities.
Te Korowai o Kaitiakitanga
Te Korowai o Kaitiakitanga broadly translates to the Cloak of Stewardship, reflecting our role in ensuring the oceans and waterways of Aotearoa are safe, secure, clean and sustainable.
Through this work, we’re taking key steps forward to build the diverse capabilities we need, make the organisation stronger, and be better able to deliver outcomes for our people, the maritime sector and New Zealand.
Our Vision
This is a big aspiration for Maritime NZ – and the difference we want to make in the world. The vision has three distinct, but connected pieces.
Preventing harm: is at the heart of what Maritime NZ does. Through engagement, education and enforcement, we seek to avoid maritime incidents, reduce risks, and create a safety culture for all New Zealanders working and playing on our waters. We can’t do this on our own - we need to build trust and confidence in the sectors we regulate, to will work alongside us to implement enduring change.
Saving lives: People are at the core of why we exist. From safe ships and port operations, to coordinated rescue efforts, saving lives remains one of the most valuable contributions we can make to NZ society. We remain committed to our readiness, rescue and response functions.
Securing our future: is a new piece that we want to bring forward in our vision. It recognises that the work we do in the maritime domain is a strong contributor to New Zealanders' well-being. We help to ensure resilient, effective and efficient supply chains. We also work to ensure our maritime sector supports passenger travel, tourism, and our fishing sector.
Our Outcomes
Our outcomes signal our priorities, what we want to achieve as an organisation, and how we will measure success.
Safe, Secure and Clean were all recognised as important to represent our continued commitment to work towards a safe, secure and clean maritime domain. Sustainable has been added as an overarching goal supporting our other outcomes, and also reflects the economic performance aspects of the maritime domain that are critical for New Zealand’s wellbeing.
Our Principles
Our Principles describe how we want to be recognised as an organisation and how we will execute our responsibilities as a regulator.
Intentional | Takune: We are a capable, responsible and accountable regulator who takes deliberate actions towards achieving our outcomes. We take a systems view of the maritime domain with an eye to the future. We do what we say we will do.
Trusted | Whakapono: We actively steward the Crown Māori relationship in New Zealand’s maritime context and deliver on our obligations on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We make balanced, transparent and consistent decisions. Our approach is impartial and proportionate to the harm we are managing. We have the confidence of the community and therefore have their ongoing respect and support to regulate.
Influential | Whakamana: We are respected leaders who build open, honest and effective partnerships with the maritime sector, other government agencies, iwi and NGOs. We actively look for opportunities to collaborate with others to achieve shared outcomes. Information flows effectively between us and the maritime sectors.
Adaptive | Urutau: We are aware of our changing operating context, and adjust our approach to it. We are flexible and dynamic. We value new and innovative approaches to regulating and we find opportunities to learn and improve the way we work.
We have used English and te reo for both the values and principles. In many cases the words are not an exact translation, and are not intended to be, they need to be read together to convey what we are meaning.
For information on our values, see ‘Our Culture’ on our Careers page.
Plain language
The Plain Language Act 2022 came into force on 21 April 2023. Maritime NZ is committed to using language that is clear, concise, well organised and appropriate to the intended audience.
Maritime NZ is required to take steps to support our people to use plain language.
What documents must use plain language?
- Documents written in English
- Documents intended for a public audience
- Documents that include information about what services are provided by Maritime NZ, or information about how to obtain those services.
- Documents that provide information about filing, registering, or lodging information with, or giving information to Maritime NZ
- Documents which explain to the public how to comply with a requirement that Maritime NZ administers or enforces
- Documents that provide information as part of a public education initiative
The Plain Language Act does not stop Maritime NZ from using te reo Maori in our documents.
Let us know what you think about how we use plain language – what we are doing well and what we could improve on.
- email enquiries@maritimenz.govt.nz
The Act only covers documents written in English that we have published or revised since 21 April 2023.
Related information:
Careers centre
View our current vacancies, find out what it is like to work for MNZ and the diverse roles of those who work for us.
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