So Nicola Willis will spend $1.2billion on a Toyota Corolla?

1. Remember those days of Richard Hadlee approaching the bowling crease with the words of the advertisement proclaiming “you’re so right, you’re so right, you’re so very very right Toyota”. Unless you are referring to Nicola’s political leanings, these are not words you would ever use referring to her.

   • Willis is out of her tiny little mind….that is now plainly obvious…no way does she have the intellectual firepower, financial knowledge, practical knowledge, experience, or even learning capabilities, required to understand the complexities of the job to be a good Minister of Finance.

     She , in a moment of extraordinary hubris ,has managed to checkmate herself in a single move, without anyone else playing….. wow!…i mean.. WOW!!…There’s room for dancing upstairs.

     All she knows, and does, is cut, without any cost benefit analysis, no long term benefit analysis, or quid pro quo analysis…..well … any fool can do that!!

     She was shown up badly during the Queenstown finance debate during the election campaign when Grant Robertson and James Shaw ran rings around her. Handed out a master class . If anyone is in doubt, go back and check out the footage. It’s alarming to think that she is now the Minister of Finance…. N.Z. was well and truly asleep…. And they will pay big time for their yeah nah she’ll be right attitude.

     I shudder to think what she would have been like if National had been in power during Covid. I think the country dodged , not a bullet , but a cannonball, there.

     Having said that, thicko Bill English was no better, and he’s back in behind the scenes again ‘advising’ Willis. …the blind leading the blind. N.Z…R.I.P.

2. yep and we will still need to future proof the ports at either end .We will end up spending 5 billion not forgetting the 430 mill already spent then the beak fee on top of that .We are nearly 1 billion on the way already .What a stupid woman

3. Martyn – So why did Labour not sort this out years ago?

   • What a dope clearly labour ordered the best posable ships to allow future growth now we are headed to 6 million people soon .The problem arose with the price gouging of the national party owned construction companies doing the required up grades .The existing ports are as old as biden .As far as the size of the ferries I would rather a Toyota Crown if i had to travel with Willis as she and I would be hard pressed to fit in the corolla .

     • Well said. But she probably drives a Tesla she bought before the incentives were taken off. Insider trading it’s called.

     • gordon walker – Yes, yes, let’s blame National for Labour’s lame -ness….they, Labour, knew of this problem over 6 years ago.

   • They had 2 new ferries coming & it was probably only National voting types causing any planning delays & cost overruns. They also had the task of preventing a religious war & a major pandemic to deal with while keeping the economy running so it’s not as if they were doing nothing.

     • Bonnie – Come now, Labour could have sorted this out…but decided not too.

   • Because Labour has an emotional attachment, almost a codependency, for the Rail sector. Labour can’t say ‘no’ to the rail sector.

     Rail and the ferries has big militant unions – Railway workers and engineering workshops are heavily organised, and the Maritime Union is one of the last ones that seriously disrupt the economic activity of NZ.

     Another factor is that rail, unlke trucking, needs a central controling management to ensure it works safely and efficiently – that gives the state a huge & essential role. Trucking is self-organising and the Govenment has little role to play apart from road and vehicle standards.
     Also, truck drivers are widely exploited by the freight companies, who are ruthless – but then their customers in the wider corporate world are ruthless in cutting freight costs.

     • When was the last strike Ada??. It’s a pity there haven’t been more strikes about the state of these ferries because the last two incidents of breakdown on the water also included the staff on board. I think you are living in the past glories of the union movement not even this rat shit right wing government can seriously blame the unions for this crock of shit that is this government. There is a hatred for rail from this the national party and the act party, Richard Prebble’s campaign to save the rail is a good example while campaigning with the railway workers he was actually planning to sell it off ( that’s the rabid right wing for you). One also wonders about the rail bosses who do nothing to help their cause with the public it’s as if they have a death wish themselves. This will definitely not be Willis’s finest hour, “the lady’s not for turning” but maybe in the end for selling . Its not going to end well .

     • Ada you Muppet…

       Because National has an emotional attachment, almost a codependency, for the trucking sector. National can’t say ‘no’ to the trucking sector. Their main donors. They are National’s “”union”, them and the Federated Farmers union.

       • You are so right, it’s also why our roads are in the state they are, National pandering to their trucking donors increased the weight loads ignoring Engjneering experts who told them our roads weren’t built for these increased weights and then to top it off they froze the roading repair budget for 8yrs.
         It no wonder there was such a backlog of repairs needed.

     • More Bollocks from Ada. Rail makes way more sense for moving large amounts of freight to nodes. It’s a fact that’s nothing to do with unions. You have no clue

   • They didn’t how.

   • Wow. Labour had done something fairly recently. The previous, largely ineffective government, still managed to have something in place for the future. Expensive sure but that is a product of putting off in the past. Whereas this f’cking drop kick of a government goes and stuffs it up like everything else. F’ing idiots to a man, and woman.

4. Utterly incomprehensible stupidity. Mind you, this is a party that lies to cancer sufferers for their votes, so go figure…….
   And where is “rail’s champion”, tinfoil Winston, on all this? Yet another betrayal by NZ1st.

5. What I don’t understand is why there is any long winded discussion about cancelling the ships. At 2 For $500m they’re a bargain, and if the cancel cost is half the contract price then no-one in their right mind should be cancelling them when they’re a saleable asset at the end fo the build.
   I see they have three options.
   1. Cancel the contract and pay the astronomical break fee = dumb
   2. Alter the design to take 10% off the size (complex) so they can fit in the existing ports and safe navigation plans.
   3. Build them anyway and if they can be made to fit in the interim, great, otherwise sell/lease them to Stena ferries to take Polish truck drivers across the Baltic.

   • No use in the Baltics, wrong rail track gauge (standard 4’8). Would need a complete reconfiguration of the train storage deck and loading ramps. Huge cost to then reconfigure the ferries back to the NZL narrow (3’6″) rail track gauge.

     • Reconfiguring the ship doesn’t come into it – Any rail deck would just be used as a vehicle deck – as Aratere does for a lot of the time…

6. The Toyota Corolla is the most reliable motor car.

   • Labourites just know car= bad
     Bike lanes good, bike bridges great.

     • Nationalites are simply thick as pig shit, see Keepcalmcarryon as evidence.

   • Yes bob but is it the most reliable ship/ferry dream on matey

     • Forgive Bob, he’s on leave from the dementia ward, in fact, he makes sleepy Joe look coherent.

     • Build a whopping great bridge to accommodate the Toyota Corolla.

   • The HMNZS Toyota Corrola is like the My Little Mermaid with little sea shells covering her little breasts, because land dwellers see it as a sexual act. But land dwellers do not understand the engineering challenges of t-shirts underwater.

   • You’ll need that Toyota Corolla as you start to pay increased road user chargers, regos and tolls on new roads.

     National are corrupt.

   • Circuit board needs re soldering BTF, you are now just making things up

   • The Toyota Corolla was always a stupid analogy….what planet is she on… Luxon , Willis, Bishop, Seymour….full of self praise …all as thick as pig shit!!

7. All I know is if I’m heading across the strait im using bluebridge

   • Mmmm. Good luck. Check their record out. Given the number of sailings they do compared to Inter Islanders you may find they are no more reliable. The white noise has concealed some facts that the media can’t expose because it would ruin a good story.
     I’ve booked twice for a cancellation and a delay.
     Inter Islanders 4 bookings for 1 delay.

8. ” So why did Labour not sort this out years ago ”

   Shouldn’t the question be why haven’t any governments invested in infrastructure apart from just new highways.

   Labour and National led governments are to blame here and imposing austerity on the country for the last thirty years.

   The country is so run down and barely functions and the money wasted on some of these ridiculous ideas instead of putting the money into vital transport links like the Cook straight ferries and ports.

   We lurch from one ideological position to another every time the government changes so how can anyone plan with certainty on anything getting done and it being seen through.

   National want economic growth but don’t want pay for new ferries and would rather see it all privatized for their wealthy supporters which has been a complete disaster if the past is anything to go by.

   • Are you saying that Bluebridge is a disaster?

     • ” Are you saying that Blueridge is a disaster ”

       Certainly not. They have provided an additional service which has been vital when Kiwi rail ferries are experiencing problems due to underinvestment.

   • Mosa – Agreed – both parties have been asleep at the wheel over infrastructure…and both blame each other.

     • Yeah damn right Nathan.

9. The South island don’t want a tunnel or working ferry.

   • ” The South island don’t want a tunnel or working ferry. ”

     Yeah but just interviewing yourself doesn’t count.

10. So National are going to privatise rail ie. sell it their mates who will play jiggery pokery with the share price for a few years. Then the business will be declared unviable and the government will have to bail out a strategic asset. Depending on who is in power at the time the taxpayers may pick it up cheap but more likely the tax payers will be stiffed all over again on the repurchase.

11. Ships are built by shipbuilders, not boatbuilders.

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