Nick Mills: Winston Peters' Interisland ferry announcement told us very little

OPINION

After Sunday's very underwhelming announcement on supermarkets from Finance Minister Nicola Willis, I was a bit worried that yesterday’s announcement on the future of the interisland ferries would be much the same.

Lately the coalition government has made a bit of a habit of making announcements that mean very little.

And to some extent, that's exactly what we got from Rail Minister Winston Peters yesterday.

Now first; a bit of background.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis cancelled the brand new interisland mega ferries shortly after the election, pointing to the extreme cost blowout. She spent a year working on replacements and late last year we were told she was about to announce her bold new plan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News talks'd B.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now, if you're living in Eastbourne by the water and
you can see the heads of the harbor, and if
you live in Seatoon or break A Bay and you
can see the heads of the harbor, or if you're
sitting in Lyle Bay looking towards the heads of the
harbor and you can see these two white, big, beautiful
looking fairies coming to the harbor. Well, they're the fairies

(00:37):
at Winston Ordered. They're here already, they're arriving. What day
is it? You know it? Well, after Someday's very underwhelming
announcement by Finance Minister Nikola Willis on what she and
what she wasn't going to do for the price of
my and your butter, the pound of butter, she was

(00:59):
going to fix that. Remember, I was a bit worried
that yesterday's announcement on the future of the inter Island
Fairies would be underwhelming too, based on the promises of
the promises of the promises the Coalition government has been
I don't know what would you call it, kind of

(01:20):
getting used to making announcements, about making announcements. I don't know.
It just feels to me that there seems to be
a lot of promises and very little action right now. Now, first,
I'm going to give you a little bit of background here.
Nicola Willis canceled the brand new Into Island Ferries shortly
after the election. She spent a year working on a

(01:43):
new plan, had a new plan, and late last year
we were told that when she was about to announce
her new plan for the Fairies, things changed. It turns
out that Winston Peters was made Minister of Rail and
given to the end of March to come.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Up with a plan.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
He apparently did not like the plan that Nikola had,
so he wanted some time. He reckoned he could bring
it in on budget and he could make it rail ready.
He said, give me some time and a budget and
I will come up with a better plan. Well, yesterday
was the end of March, and upsteps Winston Peters to
the podium.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
We have said yes to affordability and no to extravagance.
This gives us more ferry holding steam. The mandate they
need to negotiate a good ship contract with commercial shipyards.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Now think about that gives us time to work out
a good commercial arrangement with shipyards. Nothing's been done well,
the better plan has been announced, and yes, the new
faery specifications are for rail enabled, which I think a
lot of us want, which Kiwi Rail chief executive Peter
Reedy said was great news for the public, international visitors,

(02:55):
and the entire freight market. Good news. Take that as
a positive. I think most of us would agree that
rail enabled fairies is the right way to go. Cut
costs for the rail freight speed things up much better
like that idea. The new two new theories are going
to be two hundred meters long. That's a bit longer
and a bit wider than the current fleet, but smaller

(03:17):
than the mega theories that Nicola willis canceled. And all
of the sounds fantastic, great, but this one glaring problem.
We haven't actually ordered these theories. We haven't brought them.
This is an announcement, was Winston Peter's confirming that the
government wants to buy them. It was an announcement of

(03:40):
a shopping list, not a contract. It's an announcement about
an announcement again, isn't it. My biggest problem is next
year we would have got those new theories coming through
the heads arriving into Wellington. The Mega Fairies would start
arriving next year into our own, very own Harvard. Now

(04:01):
we keep hearing that our theories that we've had, all
these were broken down several times, have to last run aground.
I remember that autopilot that they couldn't turn off while
they're making a coffee. Now we have to wait till
twenty twenty nine, that's when the new ones will arrive.
That's four years away at best, and according to the

(04:25):
former chair of the Faery Ministerial Advisory Group, Chair Mark Thompson,
that might not be possible. Can they build Winter Tender
and deliver by twenty nine and five years? Four years?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
In other words, I think I think that's a challenge.
We know that from our work in the shipyards in
Europe last year that there's a lot of activity up
there and this currently changes in regulations around fuel and everything,

(05:00):
so there is a possibility there will be an influx
of orders that could could compromise the timeline that Winston's
talking about.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Now think about that. That wasn't very convincing, was it.
So we don't know how much it's going to cost.
We don't even know what the budget is then remember
we have to pay the contract break fee for the megafories.
We still don't have an exact idea what the ships
are going to look like and who's going to build them.

(05:36):
And one other concern I have what happens of next
year there's a change of government and then there comes
another change of plans Again do we go through this
progress process every three years? No progress, just process? And
the other question remains unanswered in my mind. Will these
theories that we currently use actually last till twenty twenty nine. Yes,

(06:01):
we had a great summer with them, no breakdowns, fantastic,
But history tells us there's one hell of a lot
of water to go between now in twenty twenty nine,
these old fairies have to cross a lot of water.
And these old girls are getting older, not younger, and
they're not without their issues. We know that. For me,

(06:23):
it's still a weight. And see, I can tell you
it's definitely not the plan I expected to come out yesterday.
Not quite as disappointing as Nicholas Willis's announcement, but still underwhelming,
very underwhelming.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
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