Interislander ferry: Contract cancelled, so what’s the solution? | Q+A 2024
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 มี.ค. 2024
- Whena Owen sails to Picton to see the impact the cancelled ferry terminal project has already had on the town, and asks what the new solution to the ageing fleet will be.
Join Jack Tame and the Q+A team and find the answers to the questions that matter. Made with the support of NZ on Air.
They were supposed to get NZ "back on track" but have quite literally been ripping up the rails.
That is so true, when I saw the election Bill boards, I laughed at the Monty Python's irony, canned the lite rail and the Cook Strait ferry development and their slogan " get NZ back on tract". No progress in NZ until National has gone, sorry to say.
But, but, , ,
National is so ideologically committed to tax cuts for the 1%
How could they possibly pay over $100 mil for some 30 year Old boats?
are you all intoxicated and have been in a daze for the last 6 years
This is one of the worst financial decisions made by this government.
Bs
@@mobbarley7517 you're probably right, there's worse to come from these imbeciles.
You can't run a $35bn annual deficit like the last government for long, welcome to a period of paying for the last governments lolly scramble.
@@Battleneter blame Labour 😂
@@Kult365 indeed, as per the data
Such a shame to cancel the iReX project. How short-sighted this government is.
Perhaps not having the children have the credit card for the last 6 years wasting money and not delivering a thing could have helped us out now huh...
@@dsndicmsa7141 Perhaps not promising tax cuts, like every single right-wing government throughout the world ALWAYS does, wouldn't leave them scrambling to cover the hole they created using greed to get those winning votes.
But yeah, Labour are at fault? Jesus.
we have no money to pay for it dummy we are broke
@@dsndicmsa7141 And if Labour hadn't been in power the last 6 years you might have been one of the 1,000's possibly 10's of 1,000s additional dead that would have died of Covid because National would have done as America had done & kept everyone working & catching Covid. I am so happy we had Labour in control through Covid.
@@TheFalconerNZ wow did you get that from your crystal ball
Stupid...that contract was a good price....now its going to cost much much more to re do when the bandaids fail
yet the wider project costs which were triple the original figure (3 billion today) and likely to escalate further were not a "good price" overall. They could not buy/build the new ferries and put them to use without having to develop the landside infrastructure as well which is what was the lionshare of the costs involved.
@@danielphillips4399but is that saying in fact that the infrastructure is 1950’s. And it needed upgrading. Like much of NZ infrastructure. This is a vital link. Ramshackle ferries, with terminals that don’t cater for 21st century needs including parking and facilities and separating trucks from cars is needed.
@danielphillips4399 so the alternative is do nothing and let the infrastructure get worse?
If it was a good price National would of kept it, so I don’t know we’re you got that from.
@@danielphillips4399$1.389b to $3b is not triple. It is also not unusual for costs to increase as each year passes if you wait too long. Read the numbers not what you are being told.
National striking a huge blow to top of the south in commerce and connectivity. Horribly myopic.
Hope those voters remember.
@@roberthooker4970 voter remorse doesn't even blip on that radar unfortunately
Sorry to see the meth epidemic is affecting you
@@dsndicmsa7141 what does that have to do with logistics, trade and tourism in the South Island?
@@Kult365 ... you don't seem to be able to use basic logic... not like the marxist filth over the last 6 years gave a shit about rural business don't try to play that card now
Nicola Willis is out of her depth on this issue where NZ Rail are making strategic decisions on future proofing the cook strait crossing she is more focused on tax cuts, which is going to cost future governments and the country dearly.
anything is better than pedo robbo. keep him away from them Asian kids
Yeah, she's protecting her boss's promised tax cuts for their rich NatACTdonors.
nicola is trying to ballance the books after labour run us clean broke every dollar borrowed must be paid back with interest do you wana pay 20 dollars for a loaf no thanks
She says "it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on" the costs involved in backing out of the project. Which raises the question: how could they make an informed decision on backing out if they didn't know those costs? Incompetent goverments and businesses are prone to making decisions first, based on gut feelings and/or "brand" consciousness, and then selectively marshalling or inventing "facts" to concoct a supporting rationale at a later date.
If ever.
@@gottenhimfella221 She wont comment because,she knows its the wrong decision, but prefers to kick this can down the road and concentrate on her Ruth Richardson style of the mother of all budgets of slash and burn to achieve her economic miracle and offer measly tax cuts to working families and windfalls for landlords, the cook strait problem re ferries and facilities will be left for some future government.
don't blame the Minister. As this arrogant goverment ministers continue to let you know "We Have the Mandate of the Voters" to me the result was more of a voter for a Red Neck Country. Don't complain you got what you voted for
The arrogant minister’s have just been al voted out of power, hala- ula
Would you per National run a $35bn annual deficit like the last government , who are the red necks lol.
Red or blue, what does it matter? 😂
lol no last election was a rejection of wasteful spending on pointless BS... but hey a few out there wanted their mob meth peddling mates to get more koha and now are pissed the tax payer tit has dried up on them
Agree we are to blame because we ALWAYS vote out the government after 1 or 2 terms because we blame them for the problems in the economy when they are as powerless as we are to keep a dead horse running. The current fiat money based economy is fundamentally broken & unworkable over time & is at the end of its life but all governments world wide continue to believe in it as the ONLY economy we can have.
How many time nz government uses public funds to cancelled major project and take nz back 50 years?
we carnt afford it dummy labour run us broke
That is what is wrong with the current political system, one party gets in power spends millions (soon billions with inflation) to start fixing an issue, power changes the new government instantly scraps it because it was the former government's project then spends millions more starting their version of a solution just to have it scrapped half way through when we change the government again. Wer shouldn't be electing governments, we should be electing people that have policies we want, not a party that promises this then does not deliver then implements policies it what it wants but never told us about.
Hang Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon all together like Benito Mussolini or a second Parlament Riot like the Covid one on Parlament or Assinate Luxon and Willis All together like Kennedy.
Absurd decision by National. We are screaming out for infrastructure and willing to spend money elsewhere, Eg RONS but not on ferries.
All so National can afford its tax cuts - simply insane especially given the sink costs already and the contractural break fees.
rubbish! The costs had escalated from $775million to 3billion. Who knows what the final figure would have been 5,6 or 7 billion or more? The tax payer does not have a no limit credit card to swipe at whim. Funding this project means sacrificing funding for other priority areas such as education and health funding.
@@danielphillips4399rubbish,all national has done is repealed everything without having anything to replace it with except we're working on it. Costs to the taxpayer is an unlimited card they swipe everytime they repeal things which results in the wastage of billions of dollars for nothing so they can uphold their ridiculous promise to give their rich benefactors tax breaks.
@@danielphillips4399 - Interislander ferries are critical North and South Islands infrastructure link for both the State Highway and national rail networks. Remember National campaigned to get the country of track and stimulated economical across all regions in the country.
@@danielphillips4399you don’t think travel for food and supplies between two islands isn’t a priority or critical? Not everything is flown in a which per kg costs far more. 3 billion? How much would a motorway cost in an urban area.?
@@danielphillips4399lol clearly you only listen to what you are being told and don't actually go and look at the numbers yourself. Its not as massive as that when you look at the original numbers and how it got to the larger number.
I was running an accommodation business in Picton until June last year and had international guests who went through the horrendous breakdowns and ferry stoppages during the previous year.. after sleeping in their cars while waiting to access the Ferry and spending all night in the terminal they made it clear they will not be coming back to NZ anytime soon.. there were constant ferry stoppages due to ongoing boat maintenance issues, over booking, inability to travel for up to three weeks with cars via Ferry crossing..requiring bookings a month in advance for overseas travellers .. you couldn’t get a more third world issue than this for tourism inter-island ferry bookings in our so called tourism destination haven… farcical and frightening … come on National .. support the south better than this..
easy fix just book on Bluebridge
Bluebridge were having technical issues with their ferries as well.
Would love to know who you voted for?
Another poor decision by this government.
Nicolas plan,keep our 30 year old ferries for another 30 years !
We are dealing with water issues due to delays. This ferry service is similar and airforce planes.
well we have no money to pay for it you can thank labour
@stellymelly That's not true. If there's money for tax cuts, then there's spare money. Infrastructure before lining the pockets of Willis's friends.
@@johnandchrisvannisselroy896 you talk rubbish mate we are broke bud the last goverment made such a mess of it we have no money they are trying to get inflation down to make living cheaper for everyone rail on the ferry is a waste of time we truck everything it cheaper quicker they spend 450 mil without cutting one peace of steel are you for real .oooo let me guess life time labour voter i bet wake up mate
Bluebridge works just fine without any tax payer trough
A government that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing sums this lot up.
Incompetent , short sited minister.
It double in cost every 6 months from the start b where does it end?
@@mcduck5and it's going to cost 3x that much when it is built once National has gone. Short sighted decisions by National.
@kevinpaulhiggs4972 It shouldn't cost that much and if it does there should be a reasonable understanding of the costs at the start. At the start of the project they said that the infrastructure would cost 300 million, that had grown to 3 billion before construction actually started
@@mcduck5 so what, if we're not progressing we are regressing. Take a lesson from Roosevelt during the depression and build infrastructure, not tighten the belt and hope for the best. National's austerity policies will deepen and prolonging a recession. We've been here before, it didn't work then and it won't work now. So far the only sector that is happy are landlords and farmers.
@kevinpaulhiggs4972 "so what"? When it was canned it was going to cost around 700 pet man woman and child in New Zealand. At the rate of cost blow out it could well have costed $5000... and that's not worth it
So National is happy with double handling of freight, instead of a smooth transfer from roll on roll off rail? They're certainly bought off by the Road Transport Users Association.
And truck companies be so happy with their trucks sitting wrong side cook straight. Ironically it's the rail ferry that has been most reliable and looks in best condition
Who are more interested in playing with their trucks than true logistics that uses the best mode to transport customers goods.
@@dougm7796 yet government thinks the 29 year old Kaitaki is still perfectly fine for probably about 10 or 15 years to get trucks across cook straight. Truck love getting stuck on wrong side cook straight right?
Bluebridge already handles over half of the freight across the straight
@@dsndicmsa7141- Only 28% of the freight.
There you have it at 5.25 in the video the actual reason this project got scrapped... the trucking lobbys don't like the idea of rail roll-on roll-off trains... it hurts their business. Just like everything this govt has done so far, it comes down to prioritising their lobby groups... Tobacco companies, oil n gas, trucking, property developers and landlords. All benefit from this govt where everyone else gets nothing. If anything we get pushed back decades and we get more costs and more taxes (like the toll charges, congestion charges on roads they're pushing)
Trucking companies want better ferries too, trust me.
@@TravellinOn2010 They want more reliable ferries yes. But you missed what I said... they don't want ferries with roll-on roll-off trains.... Trains = competition to their business
@@TravellinOn2010 Especially when their freight is sitting on the dock going no where when the ferry has broken down ha ha ha.
Now we know why mainfreight donated money to National Party
Breaking the contract that had been quoted earlier was absolutely foolish knowing the global inflation across construction and materials that has occurred, if repriced now would cost at a guess 1.5x more for what we would have secured.
Same thing with the Scott base article out today, they canned the project based on price only to have it re-design/re-optioned to secure 1/3rd of the original design for a similar price. You do not re-negotiate contracts with contractors and suppliers in an inflationary environment, they claim to be business savvy but they are clueless
$200 m break fee from a government claiming to be the fiscally responsible side of the house. Absolutely ridiculous. Enjoy the 3 years.. won’t be 6 at this rate.
Yeah, you may be right, but who would you put in?
The same tedious thinking that has hamstrung NZ infrastructure projects for years is alive and well at the National Party. No wonder NZ can't build anything. And I imagine that the 15 Roads of National Significance will soon turn into two or three roads that are a Kind of Important to Somebody. I don't blame Nicola Willis for trying to cut expenditure, but stuffing up our Cook Strait transport links is NOT the way to do it. Overseas there are various developments in the field of coastal and longer distance shipping. But in New Zealand? Dum-ti-doo.....
Its ridiculous the amount of the money spent on this project so far and which will now be wasted is more than the total price of the two new ferries.
Nah the correct decision was to go with these new ships to build for a bigger population and economy. Imo. Laurie 😊
As a sales rep , the ferry’s being cancelled constantly is hurting business .
We are heading for another Wahine disaster
Nicola Willis incompetence is going to cost the country and people many billions and decades of suffering and likely many lives. Total Embarrassment .
Labour started this unviable unaffordable project and then handed it to National to sort out what a mess it is turning into.
Counted up what the incompetent and totally arrogant Ardern cost us?
@@olliemoose2020It is affordable and needed, more so than tax cuts. National's policies are a sinking lid of austerity which will retard NZ development for years. What a shame.
The cancellation's driver was the coalition's Govt's cosy relationship with the road transport lobby; the last thing their voluminous pockets wanted was the vastly increased rail capacity. Appalling for the future, a vast waste for the present.
Everything is going up and it will never be cheaper to do anything that makes a sustainable infrastructure, like proposed ever again. It shows that the Government doesn't have an overall goal of achieving anything that will be of long-term benefit to anyone or anything.
This will end up as one of the biggest balls ups since the Clark Govt sold Kiwi Rail!! Then realised " hang on a minute, i think we need a rail network" & then bought it back for more than what they sold it for!!
Which is exactly what will happen with the Interislander!! 🙄 How have successive governments gotten worse than the ones that proceeded them🤷🏽
The Minister of Finance made loud calls she had saved 1.4 billion but now .Opps she does not have ideas about cost breaking contracts or how get smaller second hand boats. She is out of her area of knowledge.
She's probably going to be giving half a billion to Korean ship builder for nothing in return, great money saving right
@@niteryder50 As long as it comes out and shows cabinet acted without full knowledge.
National campaigned to get the country back of track and stimulated economic across all regions in the country but a critical piece of national land transport road and rail infrastructure that will help in the country's 'economic' growth is not an important investment. The decision by the Minister of Finance shows how out of touch this all talk, no plans government is.
National didn't campaign to support the ferry replacement project with huge escalating costs though did they?
@@danielphillips4399 - National did campaigned to get the country back of track and stimulated economic across all regions which includes spending more money on upgrading the State Highway network which includes the North and South Island link of the network to allow for more MAX50 double trailer trucks and possibility MAX60 double trailer trucks as being promoted by the Road Transport industry
If you are oppose in upgrading of the State Highway link between the North and South Islands, then you must be opposed to the $26 Billion for the 15 RoNS as 'promised' by National.
@@chrismckellar9350 National did not campaign on supporting the ferry replacement project. It was not included in the scope of the National Roads of Significance project. No I don't agree with you at all. They are not related or in scope.
@@danielphillips4399 - Spoken like a true National supporter. The 'road' link between the North and South Island is a critical link in the State Highway network. You don't accept the the State Highway is part of RoNS and a critical national infrastructure asset?
@@chrismckellar9350 no one is suggesting that the ferrys are not an important part of our transportation infrastructure. What is being questioned is the scope and size of the irex project which has suffered from significant scope creep and cost escalations.
well done coalition supporters you win again
Back to the horse and cart age, the way things are going.
Build the ships !
When she rolls Luxon we going to be in even more trouble
They should have scrapped tax breaks for landlords to fund iRex, not the other way around.
Kiwis can not do big projects thats for sure hahaha
They just need to keep the ships maintenance up to date. It is time the ships were looked after better. The last government let things slip very badly.
Isn't this maintenance done overseas?
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater! Unbelivable that this decision was made with little understanding of exactly how much it will cost to break the contract.
short-sighted this government is
also I will be scraping a fleet of EVs because eve's cost more than Ic cars to run now
Peter Principal alive and well within the Public Service
Making more opportunity for private ferry company, they can grow their business without trouble. That’s how national works. By stopping project on the middle means wasting public money without second thought. It doesn’t seems like this government works for public rather than private companies. It’s really shame for us to bring them back to the power. Now we need to suffer, it’s our mistakes not theirs.
Still unsure why Kiwi Rail had to pay for all of the port infrastructure, which was the most costly component, as well as the ferries. Shouldn't the port companies in Wellington and Picton shoulder some of the cost as well as the local councils. The Government has been noticeably absent from the conversation (and most recently blaming Kiwi Rail) rather than showing leadership given the critical nature of Cook Strait transport corridor.
Electric ferries with sails are the answer.
I am an expert, when I am not doing my housework.
With a top-up station midway of the channel. Nz is so wonderfully different to the rest of the world. Makes us so desirable 😂😂😂😂😂
GREAT! Hear that! Any contracts that have been cancelled should have and I would expect a very expensive exit clause for gruberment! Maybe 200%!
The contract for the ships was a good one. It was the gold plated add on's that broke the bank.
Kiwirail Holdings Ltd got a very good contract price at the time. If they back to the ship builder, they more expensive.
Except the add-ons weren't really gold plated were they? It's not like KiwiRail were building luxury, 1st class, ferry terminals
I went on the same ferry 3 times over 3 months and the same shitty nappy I had seen in the smokers area that had been slapped onto the handrail turd side down and had adhered to said handrail with a strength rivaling superglue was present for all three trips.
Politicians never held accountable for wasting millions of taxpayer funds is the problem,stop shuffling on to a different department so they keep their golden parachute pensions. The private sector can’t operate like a government as it would go bankrupt,not having an unlimited taxpayer subsidy.
More roads, more trucks. Coastal shipping next
Hey at least landlords will get a tax break to enhance there capital gains
People should be pissed off at Nicola Willis for cancelling this without any understanding of the cost or implications to the community
Typical politician. When pushed into a corner,of their own volition.They crawl behind the covers. COWARD.
tunnel under The Straight, it will be at huge cost but how many accumulative cost of ferry's every few years will it take to pay for a tunnel under the water? Toll it just as much as if you were paying for a ferry ride
They cannot build an undersea tunnel because the geography is volcanic based and the area is an active seismic zone.
@@bazza945
Japan manages to do so. It’s expensive.
@@boggisthecat Japans economy makes NZ look very poor in comparison. When a tsunami strikes a city they could have it looking normal in a year maybe two.
@@MrWillt100
Yes: it’s expensive. Possible, but costly.
The word on the street is they are refurbishing 15 of those amphibious US Army Ducks from World War 2, that way they dont have to have proper terminals at each end, they can just drive them up onto the beach and offload passengers instead. As for rail and road traffic, yeah well, thats anyones guess.
Surely, this crossing is a major contributor to national tourism, freight and logistics. How short sighted is this? From an Australian's point, one that was planning a full North to South road tour, it is very disappointing. Also, completely shatters the illusion that NZ is a great nation of entrepreneurial achievers. Gave up, eh?
Go back too coastal shipping like we use to have. All good taken to regional port's by road and rail and on to private sector companies and moved more efficiently.. JUST LIKE WE USE TO .
Whose decision was it to cancel the project?
Should build a rail tunnel and have a similar setup to the channel tunnel in the UK and France. You could move the same amount of vehicles as one ferry in 1/3 of the time it would take a ferry to cross the strait.
We dont have the population in NZ to justify the expense of the tunnel..
You forget that the cook strait crosses one of those plate boundaries. Not safe for a tunnel as you only need to look at an earthquake map to see that it has thousands of quakes per year.
Time for Winston to pull the plug on this government
I didn't get any solutions from you video. My suggestion is put Winston in charge, he will sort it out.
Haha you know you're in trouble when you want Winston in charge. Holy moly 😮
Wait til the cook strait break impacting on nz economy
odd as they competition seems to have no issues in getting the ferries they need.
Its not odd. One is private, one is a SOE.
They’re not doing rail though.
Old used ones just like interislander has and don't appear as good in rough seas
The competition is owned by Morgan Stanley who have very, very deep financial pockets.
@@chrismckellar9350 They may have deep pockets but they also are not rushing out to buy new ferries and they have exactly the same issue as the interislander ferries in purchasing new or old ships.
No, it is the minister you are talking about here.
Is the ferry contract cancelled tho?
the solution is to buy purpose made ferries to suit the infrastructure that we have. If that means we need 4 ferries then so be it .Someone need to be held to account for the ridiculous cost differetial
Just be like the successful bluebridge and purchase ferries from overseas. I’ve been sailing at least once a year for over 25 years and always sail bluebridge.
No mention of the new ships being bigger than harbour master will allow in tory straight
Don't worry folks there is an all electric ferry as shown n TVNZ much better than a fossil fuel consuming model ready to go or is it?
They have them in Europe already.
I don't see private companies wanting to do It, that shows me It's just a money hole for the taxpayers and we still have to pay commercial prices to travel on the ferry! 🤣
As a kiwi this is a massive blow to our country, I am sure if they had a public vote we all would of wanted it its way past due but this government only wants to better there pockets cause most of them are well paid...look at the public sector layoffs that does nothing for boosting our country, when were the last time the tax brackets were changed.
- wish i could move back overseas it wasn't always great but you didn't need to be a millionaire to survive & transport seemed to be way better
Does anyone know what the budget blowout was? I seem to recall it was huge!!! It should have been mentioned, I reckon, to give some context to this shambles. Problem seems we're just too small a Country with no money and ALOT of things to fix!!
the costs have escalated from 775million to now nearly 3billion and the risk was that costs were likely to continue to balloon.
Bluebridge ferries are still sailing arent they, the last government and governments before have spent a small fortune on kiwirail. Its like a bottomless pit to throw money into. The cost blowout wasn't so much on the ferries but the terminal work on shore. KiwiRail had spent $424m on the iRex project as of the end of December. Of this, $90m was spent on the ships, $300m on the terminals, and the rest on programme management costs.
Kiwirail wanted to upgrade the wellington terminal at Kaiwharawhara which is a seismically active zone. Reidy said natural hazard risk modelling has changed since then and the fallout from the likes of the Kaikōura earthquake is still being filtered into building standards.
Upgrading the Kaiwharawhara site meant building on an earthquake plate that required 270 piles going 70 metres into the ground, he said.
The seismic risks alone accounted for a $250 million increase in costs.
There was also a flood risk that required the site to be raised by 1 metre, Reidy said.
So why didnt they use the existing wellington site ?? questions need to be asked about that ?
I think you may be a little confused, the current Wellington terminal is the Kaiwharawhara site, Kiwirail wanted to move away from it not to it because it was an earthquake zone but was blocked by the WCC. The flood zone requirements where also done by the WCC a year after work had begun on the Kaiwharawhara site.
@@kombikid7572 Sorry yes, thats right my mistake - but the site and terminals have to be upgraded to take the larger ferries hence the 270 extra piles and siteworks. If they had of bought the new ferries with similar size as the old ones they wouldn't of had to upgrade the terminals and could have just used the new ferries and upgraded the old terminals later when NZ finances were improved ??
@@stevejudge8472the wharf, site and terminals are well past their intend life spans and have to be rebuilt regardless of the ships size. an extra 30m on a wharf was small potatoes compared to the shore side works that will still have to be done at a now much higher cost.
A big part of iRex was securing resiliency on the strait for the next 100 years, this kind of thinking is contrary to the fundamentals of our political system, a politician/party requires political pay off from its spending in the next 3 years for elections this leads to very short term thinking. For example $7b for some landlords to secure votes for the next election cycle or $2.7b for world class safe infer-structure that would benefit every NZer for generations to come.
Reminds me of the Greek proverb,
"A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit."
TT Line in Tasmania will have some 26 year old ferries up for sale soon... :(
I don’t know what Willis is worried about. “Putting taxpayers at risk” is what she does best.
700-800 million down the drain for absolutely nothing. Leaving us with the exact same problem.
We have a country split in 2 core pieces. Were trying to rebuild an economy.
How can you justify risking this connection with all the problems we have already had.
Absolutely insane.
Boeing Jet Foils are brilliant. Talk to the authorities in Hong Kong. They are experts in inter island travel,
This is crazy.
speed travel with the whanganui to motueka service proposed by Talleys and crushed by the government some years ago.
Get an AUSTAL wave piercing fast ferry. They are so fast, stable & comfortable.
We have already done that in the 90's it did not work as the Cook Strait is too rough for them.
How incompetent is that minister ?
The original scheme sounds like it was a disaster for road logistics, passengers and private vehicles. 2 sailings a day with 3 or 4hr loading times apparently. Imagine having to drive a truck onto the boat 3hrs before leaving
build some artificial islands ..... and do a combo of tunnels and bridges ??
Put taxpayers at risk by telling us how much it will cost to break contract? You're putting them at risk by cancelling the project... Taxpayers have a right to know.
Many in the past viewed the rail ferries as the railways and the appalling service and catering on the rail ferries as more than justifying the rail privatisation in 1984. Certainly the Cook Straight ferry service was vastly better in the years of Wisconsin and Canadian National ownership. The return to government operation indeed even the interim period of partially subsidised Toll Australia truck company ownership saw an appalling deterioration of the rail service and from memory they immediately Abandoned the fast ferry catamaran service which was excellent and violated national sovereignty by running the Australian war Bonet national colours on their locomotives through the country
So you can give landlords who are already wealthy a billion dollars in tax relief but you cancel a much needed infrastructure project that will benefit all New Zealanders and was already in process??? What a mindless decision!
Blenheim should be built as the top of the south port
Fast ferry’s stright in massive area to look after the cars etc
Get a world bank loan and sort Nz roads !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go straight to Lyttleton for freight,save on the roads for starters ?
Then it's just passengers and cars to either Picton or Blenheim,only drawback would be it would cost more ,as the freight operations wouldn't subsidise it
The government should have stopped paying all benefits and put that money into the ferries.
The labour government wasted so much money, I would like to see an audit on where all the hundreds of billions of borrowed money actually went because its not obvious.
Ask the Coalition Govt they repealed everything Labour had on its books, that move on its own would have cost the taxpayers.
Massive Shout out the Goverment😢
The worst part all parties such Labour and National has only 3yrs terms so what a mess of trouble they cause this Country financially. Bloody Disgraceful.
Amazing how much the tax cuts are going to cost the country and yet that could be paying a good slice of the brand new ferries. Talk about squandering money. We're not exactly a wealth country. I could make this such a long comment but I don't want ulcers. Looking forward to more breakdowns and possibly another propeller heading for the seabed.
13 August 1962
The birth of the Interisland ferry,
Yet in 2024 it still hasn't made a profit enough to "stay afloat" that's 62 years.
If they cant make enough profit in 62 years to buy a decent boat how long and how much Tax payer money will it take?.
Seems the competition is not crying for more money.
They have purchased at least 9 ships over that time, and one of them was a full design of our own.
It was the last round of decay that lead to second hand ships, which was handled by National.
National do not have a clue
$424 Million spent, to achieve nothing?! How can they spend 400mill to deliver zero outcome? I understand spinning up BC, RC, BIM etc etc.. but this is just insane.
Creat an under sea tunnel between north and south islands
then solution solved
i Was going to buy a car in south island then realized i had to book it a month in advance. bullshit
Build a Tunnel.
People should go to jail
Many poor decisions. With owner/operator within Governments, both current and past.
Best answer is get the fright off the roads. To do so use rail or shipping as appropriate - all are talking about environment. Where a truck is 0ne, rails is 100 and shipping 1000.
Maybe these larger ships would have been a great answer Wellington to Lyttleton, with side trips to Picton to serve the top of the South island - or let Blue bridge do that. The Minister if Finance made a money rather than a commercial decision. Because one of the major costs it the Kaikoura rail line, this being the reason to look to shipping to Lyttleton.
If the pollution hazard s as bad as the UN and other bodies claim, what are we doing forcing the fright onto the road?
The reality is NZ needs ships and rail and contiguous for best efficiency - so dropping the project is not a smart move. Buying second hand ships is also not clever. They are being sold due to economic considerations. Moving rail fright onto road to ship across the Cook Strait is also wasteful.
The observation is that this was a knee jerk reaction, rather than a carefully considered action with all Positive and negative consideration for each option.
The Government has made only one part of the decision and that in itself is a fail. But the real fail came in ordering such ships in the first instance.
Unfortunately NZ has had the Governments that they deserve. None of it being any good for most of us - the bulk of tax payers
Cutting funding for one project to fund another (tax cuts) in a nutshell shell.
so nothing new. NZ skimps on infrastructure
This government ain't got a clue.......maybe get bods off the dole give them paddles and borrow some wakas. now there's a plan....
Take Back the Country , well take it back in time with no rail and junk ferries.
Most landlords will fly over the strait one would imagine though.