On Last nights ‘Working Group’, former Labour Minister and current Union negotiator Michael Wood told the show that the cost of breaking the contract with the Cook Strait Ferry deal would be $200 million!
$200 million!
And we still have to buy the fucking ferry!
Nicola Willis must resign if this is true!
Willis’ quest to find a good reliable Toyota Corolla version of what she has called KiwiRail’s Ferrari mega ferries could be quite difficult.
KiwiRail bosses told the select committee there was a shortage of second-hand ships and there was a huge queue for getting new ones built.
Indications from ship brokers were that there were only 22 second-hand ships in the world that would meet KiwiRail’s criteria, including the capability to cross Cook Strait’s notorious waters, and none of them were for sale.
We can’t tolerate a $200million contract break fee AND find all that money for tax breaks and tax cuts!
Let’s remember, Steven Joyce was active in killing the deal off because he wanted Ferry’s to carry Trucks and not Trains for his mates in the trucking industry!
This crony capitalism might cost us $200 million!
This Government knows the price of everything and the value of nothing!
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Well their stupidity knows no bounds
…
Any economist worth listening to will tell you that keeping a whole train in tact on and off the ferries is the most seamless efficient way of transporting goods up and down the country…Cook Strait is part of our state highway.
Willis’s ill thought through idea of buying used Toyota Corollas is a dog as they don’t have the capacity to do that..
Willis is clueless….talks in riddles and shoots her mouth off before doing any homework…
Fundamentally lazy..
She performed worst of all the participants at the finance debate in Queenstown during the election campaign….nothing’s changed!!
It’s just not good enough to have someone of such a low calibre in control of the countries finances!!!
For God’s sake we need to get this lot voted out before the 3 years of carnage fully unfolds and get some mature knowledgeable adults, who actually have the ability to think critically, back in charge!
I agree, apparently she has a degree in English literature and worked for Fonterra as a spin doctor/public relations. I think she’s just a patsy for Luxon, she does as she is told. Unfortunately well out of her depth in a condescending way.
Absurdly ridiculous Grant,we had 6 years of the Labour Government who were derelict in their duty resulting in a massive defeat at the election.The dereliction a result of their incompetence,completely out of their depth.
You are pathetic Bob.
This is bad they will blame the last government; two hundred million we might as well get the ferries as we need them. I think our finance minister was reactionary and dump it like a hot scone before looking at the contractual obligations.
This is bad they will blame the last government; two hundred million we might as well get the ferries as we need them. I think our finance minister was reactionary and dump it like a hot scone before looking at the contractual obligations.
It may cost $200m but to go ahead would have meant an investment of 3 billion and rising. The original cost was 1 billion. The ferries where not the problem it was the infrastructure to accommodate them at both ends of the crossing. Hopefully the days of grand over spect projects are behind us until the next Labour Government.
It’s peanuts in the long haul considering the absolute necessity of a reliable link between the 2 islands and the longevity and functional ability of the new state-of -the- art ships…
Short termitis thinking is a disease of ‘the right’….no vision…always stupidly tight about the important things and yet free and easy with taxpayer’s money when it suits one of their nonsensical unimportant whims…
Remember John Key squandering $ 30 million of taxpayer’s money on a referendum, that nobody was consulted about or wanted, to change the N.Z.flag with something that looked like ‘t’ towel from a $ 2 dollar shop…His self indulgent legacy project…What a selfish wanker!!
What a waste of people’s time and money that was when he should have been focussed on running the country!
At least the ferries and port development would’ve been
money spent on necessary infrastructure thus securing the future transport network in the country for many years to come!!
That’s cheap.
This pack of greedy stupid bastards starting with pig tormenter Douglas will reduce a once proud people to despair. Leached on by financial parasites.
And this Government have decimated democracy in this country by gutting the mainstream news media as witnessed by the closure of Newshub and the slicing and dicing of TVNZ. We just know this had Winnie written all over it. The dictatorship by this Government is complete.
So all the broadcasting problems have just occurred have they nothing to do with the economy being in tatters after 6 years of tax and spend by Labour
Or were they the 9 years previous to Labours 6 years Trevor…just saying.
Pathetic NSC.
Poor wee Bob, so immature. Leave this forum for the adults.
Dead fucking correct @ jay11. We need to fix things and the fixing needs to start from where and when things were broken.
We need full-disclosure inquiries into politicians, the multi-billionaires and the multi-millionaires at a surgical level from 1936, that’s the date 88 years ago that the National party come into being. Every single problem we now face stems from when cunning criminals exploited the innocent and the hard working from that day on.
Yes, country boy but his government want the highways of significance when they should be prioritising the East Coast and Hawkes Bay/Wairoa whose roads and infrastructure are in a mess fix what’s broken first before starting something new.
Who cares, compared to 1.8BILLION spent on nothing for mental health, 200million spent on nothing is a bargain. Labour’s ferry scheme would have bankrupted us, like we’re not bankrupted enough already by fucking Labour.
1.8billion was spent to keep Doctors and nurses and health staff from continuing the exodus trend to Australia. For the most part this has worked. Pay equity that had cross party support was also costed into that figure. A new build for Te Whatu Ora Waikato mental health facility( way overdue due to massive immigration) added to that cost. But I guess you don’t know what you don’t know when shooting your mouth off. None of those were losses.
Labours ferry scheme would have bankrupt us is typical right wing hysteria. How on earth would that have bankrupt us? What are your costings? That is truly a juvenile statement.
I’m mean if Jonzie wants to cope with The National Partys weird tax schemes by blaming everyone else then let Jonzie cope like that.
Charles thank you for the well reasoned answer based on the facts.
Pathetic best describes your
comments Charles.
Bankrupted is the word you were searching for I think?
People don’t know what people don’t know.
Immature describes you best Bob.
Charles post shows the truth about this government and the best attack on him by you, is he is pathetic?
He was correct about right wing hysteria and you are the best example.
Try to grow up wee Bob.
Except it wasn’t spent on nothing was it you muppet.
$200m is still cheaper than the earthworks and ground stabilization needed for train-carrying mega-ferries that may have been too big for travel through the Sounds.
Wait. You know that two ferries currently fit through the sounds eh.
The Sounds Harbour-Master hadn’t yet cleared the proposed new ferries – which are much bigger than the current ones – as being safe for travel in the Sounds.
Oh my God you are a fucken nerd.
That is not Willis fault. Labour gave Railways a $1.5B budget for new ferries and infrastructure. They blew the $1.5B on ferries and “forgot” about the infrastructure. No worries they thought, simply go to the government and add another $!.5B to the budget. Not going to happen said Wiliis (quite rightly).
Railways should never have ordered the ferries without having capex set aside for the infrastructure costs.
The railways ordered ferries are too large to turn around in the existing Picton Basin so would need extensive dredging and loss of foreshore to obtain the required turning circle. Not even before the environmental court yet the work required to the foreshore in Picton so the railways should never have ordered the ferries until the resource consent to accommodate them in Picton had been granted.
Gerrit – Thank you for the well reasoned answer.
Good to see posts by the right mob who are right again about the spending of Labour .
We all know the 6 years of Labour saw obscene spending on projects that failed miserably.Defence of Labours dereliction of duty is equally obscene.
Trevor it’s not difficult for us to always be right our competition being a bunch financial illiterates.
Bob the narcissist…
Common traits of a narcissist are easy to define. Yet identifying and managing one in real life isn’t.
Narcissists have an overblown sense of self-importance.
They fantasise about glory and being held in high esteem.
They believe they are owed something.
They exaggerate their abilities, crave admiration, lack empathy, and exploit others when it suits them.
Really Nathan? Probably needs fact checking and if it passes that are we not saying we need more capacity? Or capacity that allows for more than five minutes into the future? How many f’ing times do we need to make the same mistakes?
Wheel – So what is your ideas/solutions/answers then?
Ditch the tax cuts, introduce a CGT, and actually build infrastructure.
That’s funny wheel.
Building infrastructure is funny?
Bob the knob.
next week when one of them sinks what will you be saying then dumb.arse .No wonder NZ is a back water full of low quality imported labour
The new ferries would not have saved the old ferries if one sank next week. They (the new ferries) would not be here next week and the land based infrastructure required for them to berth in Picton well over 3 years away. Strawman argument.
Another consideration is that each ferry requires yearly “servicing” which can only be done in Singapore due to their size. Meaning at least once a year (for maybe three months) the railways would only have one ferry operational (currently ferries are serviced yearly in Nelson and with three ferries at least two are operational at any one time.
The railways would have been better to order five smaller ferries for the price of two big ones. But the railways wanted railway wagon roll on roll off capabilities hence the huge increase in size to make that a viable proposition.
Railways should have planned to developed intermodal hubs in Wellington and Picton for shipping containers and had a designated ferry specifically designed to carry containers (no cars or trucks but maybe walk on passengers) between the islands.
Drydocking is only every two years, and they can fit in Garden Island in Sydney
Shame Jones and Symbian Brown could just pass over the RMA for this but it doesn’t benefit their trucking mates, so it’ll be roads to and from a bottleneck at the strait.
Yes and the new Kaikoura coastline road will be fucked and potholed in no time… which is exactly what happened last time, when that most impractical of people, Joyce, was in charge!
Yes, Grant and the potholes are increasing and where is Slim me in Brown tongue.
Heh, what a joke, all these tory apologists squiggling and wriggling with extra lube–it will be hilarious if the maritime link between North and South Islands is effectively severed or reduced to raft like pace and capacity because of the CoC Govt. not being willing to stump up for essential infrastructure.
Tax Cuts mean service cuts and acceleration of crumbling public infrastructure–these dirty Natzos just want to pay back their 1%er mates and sod the rest of us.
Clearly, KiwiRail should have thought about the fact that David Seymour and Tim Jago needed to spend this money on surf clubs with vulnerable young boys who could be coerced into exploring their sexuality. Very short-sighted. This is why libertarianism is better than socialism.
Flying trucks it is then!
Our government is incompetent and/or not concerned about best market price for real requirements. So we are sitting pigeons for these smooth talking types with business degrees which when they come here are measured on a thermometer! We are so dumb we don’t know what degrees they are talking about. The citizenry are feeling uncomfortably hot!
A cheerful little image for a break which might give a lift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL5U-PQPFrM
Spending or investment whatever you want to call it, was keeping us afloat now we have money for tax cuts and landlords and big set up costs for the new CoC (coalition of chaos) pet projects and its more money for the rich boys.
Even Grant Robertson was nervous about this deal. They were the wrong ships and the ports can’t handle them without massive upgrades. They can’t even use Tory Channel which means a longer route adding another 45mins to a crossing.
Kiwirail, in their infinite stupidity, went ahead and ordered the ships anyway before they had the port side costed, didn’t know if they could use Tory Channel and still expecting the government to keep pumping more and more money into it.
Kiwirail should have just sold the contract to someone else and let them have the cheap ships.
we need a connection between the islands…simples