The enormity of how bad the Ferry cancellation deal was

1. My 2008 Corrolla has 313k on the odometer and I fully expect 500k easy. Had to get some new tyres mind you. I want to be that old dude in the newspaper standing beside my Corrolla with a million K’s on the clock. It cost me $21k brand new. Can anyone name a more reliable car in the history of humankind?
   Dad’s $70K hyundai needed a new motor after 10k. Now at 150K needs $10K injectors.. Air con never worked.
   Some early Corolla’s are worth big money.

   • Yep, I have a lot of respect for Toyota, my 2006 Hilux is going strong, can’t drive it from Wellington to Picton though…

   • you’re looking for trade me or marketplace on Facebook brother.

2. Out of idle curiosity, where was the cost escalation – boats or the terminals?

   • The Terminals. I’m pretty sure the extra costs came from earthquake proofing the terminals.

   • terminals ,more gouging by right wing owned builders.The ferries were very cheap at 500 million .

   • Terminals.

     Plus the fact that the ferries ordered where far too large for use requiring not just massive terminal construction but also enlarging massively the Picton Basin to enable the behemoths to turn around.

     The total problem rest on the Kiwirail board for ordering massive ferries without a finalised and consented design for shore based infastructure. Without design there was no proposal to gain consent to build or dredge, there was no funding provision for terminals. Hence the need for the $1.5B on top of the $1.5B ferry costs.

     In all likelihood the ferries would have been tied up for at least 5 to 10 years whilst the terminals were designed, consented, and built.

     Labour need to take some blame for having a transport minister not on top of their portfolio.

     • never any talk of enlarging picton basin and a decent tug would have no problem handeling these ships.They also would have the latest tech side thrusters to enable them to manouver them selves .Those large cruise ships have the same tech and can park up in very small spaces

       • Exactly Gordon. Have any of you other numbnuts that have been posting here been to Picton and seen the cruise boats tied up there.
         I have and seems like Gordon has. They make the ferries look like dinghies alongside a fishing boat.
         No worries about them cruising through the sound.

       • Not just the size of the basin that is in question but also the depth. Cruise liners use Azipods and bow thrusters. The new ferries, by all acounts, and I may well be incorrect, were to be the cheaper traditional fixed screw and rudder configured. Azipods work extremely well but have limitations as they are to be housed tucked under the keel line to protect them in shallow water. Yep they work great but there is a trade off. Worth a look

         https://new.abb.com/news/detail/24849/azipodr-m-propulsion-for-ferries-and-ropax-vessels-faster-safer-cleaner

         Traditionally ferries have never used tugs to berth them. The whole point of a ferry service is speed and self reliance, Tugs add an extra cost to ferry operations and would require an even greater turning circle than the current Picton Basin.

         Also worth a read; the fears locals have in regards the mega ferries. Especially the 400 metres wide entrance to the channel where a 90 degree turn is required.

         “Cruise ships were banned from entering the drowned valley through the narrow passage after the cruise liner Azamara Quest crashed into Wheki Rock, close to the entrance, in January 2016 – despite having a Port Marlborough pilot on board.”

         https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/07-04-2023/the-battle-over-the-interislanders-new-mega-ferries

         • I would doubt Hyundi would be building ships of this size without those thrusters .I would think they would be standard equipment now days

       • Truth.
         The additional cost was earthquake proofing and allowing for sea level rise and climate change.
         Along with enlarged wharves.

         • in other words future proofing that will need to be done sooner than later at 3 x the cost

3. At this rate the CoC (pronounced “cock”) Govt. vandals may well end up severing our most significant maritime/rail transport links between the two islands! Well done Baldrick and Nicola.

   • What they should be seeing Tiger is jail time. That may still eventuate.

4. All the new government had to do was twink the ferries deal as they twinked our river link in the Hutt Valley not cancel the order altogether this was a very dumb move and showing a total lack of judgement and foresight. Nicola and luxon have a lot to answer for both showing there inexperience and at a cost to us as country. Luxon is talking about partial asset selling something he promised he would not do when electioneering just another lie.

   • So your experience in running a company is ?
     If you could do so much better which party are you standing for ?
     If the left parties were so good how come they lost the election and are still losing the straw polls.

     • What an idiotic comment, did you say the same of the right when National lost the election.
       One thing is guaranteed, the destruction created by the right wing parties in just 8 months will take left wing government decades to repair. Right wing parties only have 2 years left thankfully.

       • 2017 I was not sad that National lost because they had grown out of touch.Winnie chose Labour and paid the price at the next election.
         National were not in any shape in 2020 and Labour had all the cards and deserved to win but u fortunately for the country, they had no plan and a weak leader for tye hard road ahead when difficult and unpopular decisions had to be made .Jacinda liked Tobe liked and so bailed and the reigns were reluctantly taken over by a whimp who still cannot u derstand why Labour lost.
         Unless Labour find another Clarke then National will be there for another term at least

     • Oh, so running a country is like running a company? Shows your level of ignorance and stupidity, I guess. The only MO this government has is shifting public assets into private hands and paying back their donors. All at the expense of the environment, the New Zealand public and the generations that built this country. Someone needs to focus on the detail behind the chaos created to distract us. This government is anti-New Zealand.

5. Exactly. I also fail to understand that Kiwirail would not take into account the size of the new ferries as being practical. Large ferries with greater capacity would be more efficient for freight and people in the long term. It’s totally crazy and a clear grandstand by the
   newly elected government to show it’s stupid ability to flex its muscle and demonstrate how it was going to go about wreaking every little thing the previous government set in place. They also want to discredit Kiwirail and replace it with a private company. So they kneecapped it by canceling this deal for the ferries and blame it for lack of proper maintenance on the current ones. Just is just from the outside looking in, on what they are doing. They couldn’t give a toss about the waste of money this will create, which will be an additional expense on whatever they get next.

6. Trevor can you stop being a dick head major mistakes are being made by clowns who had small majorities and we have the six percent and eight percent parties overruling Luther whose really good at management, yeah right!.

   • Trev or clearly has no real business experience hence supports this abysmal excuse for a govt.

7. worst government ever!

8. ” the grounding of the Aratere, the air force plane breaking down and a power pylon toppling over all symbolize the collapse of our underfunded infrastructure.”
   No the cause was not under-funding, if that is what is being implied here. The Cubans manage to keep old vehicles and plant operational. New Zealanders used to do the same. Tangata motu still do. Other third world countries manage to achieve a lot with very little. At least two of the above cases were due to poor human judgements. Perhaps even a could-not-care-less attitude. Under neo-liberalism professional diligence and excellence are no longer the priority. It has become all about making money. Of necessity in some cases, and out of sheer greed in others. You can throw any amount of money at New Zealand’s infrastructure, but so long as you are trying to work under a neo-liberal colonialist regime you will suffer such embarrassments.

9. I truly find the actions of this COC especially in regards to cancelling the contract of new ferries to be Petty and Childish on the part of National.
   In their pure vindictiveness they have embarked(yes a deliberately used nautical word here)on removing any semblance or reminder of the 6 years Labour were in government. It’s almost equivalent of National doing a Khmer Rouge type of elimination and taking this country to Year Zero(aka the National government way). And so sadly enough with the vindictiveness that ONLY National can demean itself to it has likely resulted in us NZ taxpayers footing an even bigger bill for another 2 ferries. And all because National wanted to behave like School-yard Bullies having Temper Tantrums and throwing the Toys(eg the ferries)out of the Sandpit.
   I couldn’t believe that Willis in her realm of absolute stupidity cancelled the contract for the ferries even though the engines had already been built and probably paid for.
   The recklessness of National, ACT and NZ First indicates they have a cavalier attitude to when it comes to spending NZ taxpayers money as well as Mis-spending NZ taxpayers money. It’s almost as if they(the COC) view the NZ taxpayers as their OWN personal ATMs at the bottom of a “Fiscal Cliff”.
   It’s a shame our central government comprises of clowns and idiots whose main leader is ONLY in the job for the Baubles and Perks of the job plus the ‘photo opportunities’. He is bloody damned useless as a leader and supposedly a ‘representative of NZ and NZers here in NZ and around the world’.
   In fact I get the impression that Luxon hates this country and its population because every time he opens his mouth and DOESN’T THINK BEFORE HE SPEAKS he seems to find a way of putting NZ and NZers down. Maybe because much of the population(the Bottom Feeders as he calls us)are not Rich, White and supporters/donators of National.
   Out of all this we can be well assured that as per usual National, ACT and NZ and its various self-serving MPs of all three parties will blame Labour for ALL the WOES in the world. They, National especially, will continue to beat what I call the NZ National Party Blame-Game Mantra Drum that any sensible adult in a political party would have consigned to the History Books decades ago. The Blame-Game Drum seems to be about THE ONLY thing National are capable of doing.

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