This is a cluster fuck…
Cabinet has not discussed Interislander ferries replacement – Willis
No discussions or proposals for replacement ferries have gone to Cabinet in the nine months since the coalition government cancelled the new fleet.
The government has been considering advice on replacement options for the Interislander ferries since June.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says a decision will be made by the end of the year.
…I will not allow the Right to lecture us on Economic mismanagement when Willis amputated the IRex Ferry deal during a tantrum they will cost us over a billion!
The Right don”t get to bring up light rail or that bloody bike lane over the bridge after watching Willis needlessly butcher NZs transport links just to look tough.
The IRex deal was great deal that came with a necessary upgrade of the terminals, National wanting to look tough made. knee jerk reaction, killed the deal and the killing of the deal is going to blow the costs out.
We will end up with worse ships for greater cost.
That is so incredibly stupid.
Even you most hateful redneck cracker Right Wingers know this is a bullsit decision, but you – JUST LIKE NICOLA will never back down.
Why?
Your fucking pride.
Nicola and the feral right are so caught up in personalising the culture war, they can never ever admit they are wrong and so will push ahead with fucked up decisions even if it damages all it touches.
The Toxic Right alongside this Government have reached a level of hubris in barely 1 year that it usually take 6 years in power to generate.
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These are not serious people.
Correct…
‘Knee Jerk Nicola’ and ‘Clusterfuxon’ have not aquired these names without good reason.
The problem is, they have probably been brought up to believe that they are always right…even if they were clearly wrong.
These personality types obviously end up gravitating towards each other and you end up with the bad combination of ‘Group Think’ and hubris.
This is a strong indicator of a lack of overall intelligence and is highly dangerous. We see another example of it in the self titled ‘Taxpayers Union’ and The Atlas Network as well.
Ignoring all well researched , world renowed, scientific advice is what they do, because, at the end of the day, they are self serving, greedy, and tad dumb.
For these reasons they won’t back down…. It’s all about them!
The Ego & Arrogance of Willis & Captain Baldrick Luxton far outstrips any natural ability or business acumen they may have IMHO. Looks like a right royal f**k up. Captain Baldrick goes to Korea and doesn’t even have the kahunas to discuss the situation with the Koreans, it is going to be interesting to see how this one plays out.
It could be similar to watching the lions of the world tear our pollies apart in a sort of collossuseum. But I feel that the brave gladiators will have a trapdoor out of sight at the vital moment.
National- the party who know economic management……Can NZer’s, once and for all, consign this myth to the toilet bowl please! They are fucking incompetent- period!!
Give her a minute. She and her mates are just going back on all their promises for Dunedin Hospital (much the same as Whangarei). It’s tricky business creating multiple cluster f*cks.
Rise up New Zealand against this corruption!
35,000 – yes, thirty five thousand (!!) people did in Dunedin on Saturday. Total anger and disgust with these liars, out on the streets for all NZ to see.
No wonder Reti & Bishop slipped into town on Wednesday, then scuttled away as fast as their trotters would carry them. Cowardly traitors and liars.
This is a tragedy in the making–the recent ferry incidents, grounding, loss of power etc. happened in reasonably benign weather. Cook Strait can quickly get rather unpleasant and you do not want to be in a vessel with no power or steering in storm conditions. Well put it this way…I won’t be making a ferry booking in a hurry and it will be interesting to see the figures for who does now. One attraction of the ferries was being more affordable than air fares if you had to travel with no discount from gouging AirNZ.
Willis could well be a Minister who presides over Wahine disaster MkII. The transport angle is so important–maintaining viable rail and maritime links between North and South Islands. The truck loving Natzos however do not seem to give a continental about that. This country actually needs a locally owned and operated coastal shipping network which Labour, Maritime Unions and some industry employers and operators were getting serious about.
Korea will just be thinking what a pack of dickheads are running NZ, a bargain basement price for brand new rail capable ships–which partly offset the investment in new terminals. Other countries actually see new infrastructure as necessary and positive–Willis and her idiot mates see it as a downside.
NZ is in a race to the bottom under this NACT1st Government, soon we will be overtaking Zimbabwe & Cuba.
“Captain Baldrick” very good, he’d suit a “Love Boat” style cap–look it up if you are too young to have seen the TV show.
I’ll differ on Cuba though, a very poor country thanks to the US enforced economic blockade of 60 plus years. Cuba has good community level health care though and a sophisticated ability to produce vaccines and cancer drugs.
TM – we have a locally owned with widespread cheap shares that contain travel discounts with them yeh!. Must be owned by NZ citizens. And a local electric company and telephone company. I am sick of sitting down to the table and having the cloth ripped away under my nose, and sometimes the utensils too. You can’t eat soup with your fingers! Great trick for a magic show but the trickiness palls after a while.
Swallow her pride? Maybe in the gap between second breakfast and lunch but only if the tuck trolley runs out of cake.
A National party prerequisite for all ministers and MP’s is to swallow anything, including dead rats.
Yeah real fuck-up instead of tax cut which wasn’t necessary this govt priorities are skewed beyond reason. We don’t need tax cuts we need competency in managing our economy and this Coc have failedd to deliver shame on the right for advocating such policies that benefits no-one.
Just the tip of the ice berg its all crashing at a great rate of knots .Just yesterday I was informed that all housing NZ work was being stopped and no new contracts were being issued as everything was being audited .All repairs are to be the minimum required to prevent roof leaks and windows will not be replaced and houses will remain draughty .The big problem now will be getting the audits done as the near 1000 staff that have been sacked are the very people that were doing those audits for the last 10 years .NZ is heading into very rough seas .Yesterday on Q+A an economist raised the real cause of NZs debt problem ,and it is not government debt or spending .It is in fact the massive debt owed by the private population which has not been used for productive things instead it has been used for consumption like flash cars and buying over inflated priced houses which we then sell to the next person at a further inflated price .People here moan about the banks making money but it is us that allows that to happen because we are in the consumerisim trap where retail is the best therapy .
Well said I completely agree with you.
I will be interested in the solutions, as this is the Catalyst to get it 100% right for the future. I can not believe that we can not get a cohesive plan done for this critical piece of Infrastructure, with all the million’s of $$$’s spent. We need cross party support so this BS does not happen again when there is a change of Government.
Do it “Once & Get It Right” ??? an old Maaori Proverb.
Didn’t the government cancel IRex because the projected (estimated) costs were likely to exceed $3.0B? But less than $0.5B had actually been spent. Most of this, namely $0.347B on the planning and design of the portside infrastructure. This infrastructure will now never be built. KiwiRail developed the IRex outline under the leadership of Greg Miller back in 2019/20. Since this time KiwiRail paid out $0.347B to planning and design consultants and virtually nothing was built! The only way to justify $0.347B of fees was for KiwiRail to get those same consultants to estimate the cost of the physical works at over $2.0B. No discussion about what the independent cost estimation might be. This blown out estimate took the IRex budget to exceed $3.0B. And that is what killed IRex and killing IRex will effectively significantly curtail rail in New Zealand. So back in 2019/20 was IRex set up to fail and significantly curtail rail in New Zealand? It seems KiwiRail has a lot to explain but has not yet?
nicola willis like every single memember of the right wing faction of our politics should be under investigation.
I feel sorry for anyone who has to rely on KiwiRail for business or engineering advice or who has to rely on NZ First for political survival.
Surely Ada you can’t feel sorry for NatAct ” relying on NZ First for political survival.
Did you feel sorry for Labour when they had to rely on NZ First.
Frankly Nats should be ashamed that they are so venal they even have an agreement with Act and NZ First.
Surely they could have seen what Winston has done in the past and have realized how bad Act is.
Or maybe Luxon and co are simply closet Act and NZ First supporters.
What ever they are quicker ruining our country.
A coalition of Labour, Greens and The Pati Maori may have incurred more debt but at least we would have hospitals and houses and ferries and Rail.
With this lot we have less of everything including jobs and together with an increasingly unhappy population.
good call there Tom
I feel sorry for The Standard Ada if you used to comment there and have now left them and run aground so to speak.
Take a close look at Nicola’s photo.
Is the smile a little too fixed?
Look carefully into her eyes.
Is there hidden fear there?
Are the legs crossed a little too nonchalantly?
Is she trying very hard to look relaxed and at ease when really she is panicking inside?
She knows her boss views her as the condom he uses to fuck the economy.
She knows he will dump her the moment it is convenient.
when she sops swallowing
Anybody with half an ounce of sense understands that our nation has and needs infrastructure that includes strategic assets. Willis and the ACT nutjobs wagging the dog seem convinced that the private sector can provide which when it comes to major infrastructure spending they historically fail . What Willis wants in human physical terms is to believe that we can remove a major artery to a major organ and expect the body to survive.
Chopping the ferry deal was one of the first splashy actions of the coalition. Any fool knew it would cost more money than it would save to do this so Willis does not care about the cost. It was done to force a privatized ferry service and cut Kiwirail off at the knees and to support trucking and roads. Fucking stupid and Atlas network policy 101
But the big trucking companies want the roll on roll off ferries according to Don Braid and he would know because his companies has rail sidings at all there main city depots .
Likely shes the first politician anywhere in the world to make a $billion loss on one deal and keep her job. Should be in The Guiness Book of World Records.
These reptiles never lose their own money.
It is your money they lost.
She will be smiling very happily at the end of her term.
This is the government of NO Structure, no houses,no ferries,no hospitals no jobs, instead we have slash and burn and of course Seymour’s vanity projects. There is something fundamentally wrong in the land of Camelot and us unicorns have enabled this cluster fuck. This coalition cannot believe its luck that they have fools as constituents.
Oh come on National coalition is going all out on roads and expressways.
One word in response: Bluebridge.
Do you mean the Bluebridge that had a boat floating around the Cooks straight with no power last week?
I mean the company that’s long been cheaper and better run than Kiwirail while not needing money from taxpayers to drive ships aground.
Bluebridge don’t have to run rail capable ferries nor fund terminal infrastructure building and maintenance. They don’t have the responsibility of maintaining our national and interisland railfreight network like the KiwiRail State Owned Enterprise.
As a private concern, they get to cherry pick the easiest conveyance opportunities and are purely profit driven.
Your attempt to compare is completely erroneous.
Yes Jase they are the charter school of the cooks straight.
The question you should be asking is why we still bother with rail ferries in the container age. They’re useful in some nations but not here anymore.
oh that must be a different bluebridge then
What bollocks.
and they crashed into the wharf not so long ago .
Hope all those ‘Groundswell’ redneck arseholes down south are feeling the pinch from this fuckwit coalition’s mind numbing actions regarding the ferries, rail and transport in general.
New Zealander’s are like sheep and will do as they are told. I apologize to sheep for insulting them.
Nicola did make a mistake canning the I REX ferry deal. Maybe she should of looked at a different way of financing the deal.
But the ferry deal like the Dunedin Hospital deal kept on getting cost add ons. When the government signs the deal the costs should be set in concrete and not a penny more. This would make big expenditure projects easy to live with than spending good money on crooked and dodgy business deals.
One good thing coming out of these debacles is the government is letting everyone know that it will not be held to ransom with cost over runs.
Unless those cost overruns are by their political paymasters and you would be fool to think otherwise.
Oh should have, should this, don’t we all know that what should be done has a sort of random wild card chance of happening in today’s NZ. We can go on working and hoping for good outcomes but….? And 5 cents won’t buy a lolly, so not even a jolly from it.
Ferries.
100% comments above are negative to the government.
No surprises there, but where’s Bob the First and his cowardly fellow trolls from the PM’s bloated social media team when NatACT pollies are down and out? MIA? Got no answers? Truth hurts?
Exactly .
They head for the hills.
Because they are all piss and wind.
Blowing vacuous hot air in a balloon going no where.
Yes, VV even they cannot believe how dreadful and shameful this is getting.
Silly Btf couldn’t paint this as positive so, wisely (which is strange for him), is missing today.
Poor Trevor can’t face telling us it’s all part of a really brilliant plan. We know it is, and that’s the worry, isn’t it? Question is, whose plan?
Nicola sits there looking oh, so, smug in one picture. Can you imagine the fuss, the contempt and disdain which would have been heaped on Ardern if she’d been photographed in such a pose?
At least National have a plan which is more than Labour had . Their aim was to tax and spend but they could not decide what to spend it on.
Was it a bike bridge. Yes yes no.
Was it light rail in Auckland sorry only a dream.
Was it a dam I the South Island to generate hydrogen.
Was it thousands of houses for those stuck in motels .Sorry perhaps next time.
So many promises so much heartbreak and eventually the voters said enough let the other side have a go because the left have achieved little.
I read the posts and wonder if any of those writing have had to make a call that effects people’s lives .It is easy to critize from side lines but harder to be a player
They may have a ‘plan’ Trevor but the credit rating agencies still haven’t given Nicola a big tick, have they?
Whereas Grant’s plan had been approved before the election.
The reason we are so critical ‘from the sidelines’, is because we have seen the problems people are having and will have. We read every day about ways people’s lives are being worsened by this plan.
They are happy to borrow for tax cuts for the already wealthy, yet don’t think feeding children at school, getting promised and much needed hospitals finished and staffed, future-proofing the rail and road transport distribution system are good things. Will the South Is. be happy with these decisions?
Wealthy people can look after themselves. The lower 90% need more help. Why are they being penalized to create a slush fund for charter schools, which have not proved worthwhile for the majority? Much could be achieved in the existing system for children who struggle, if the govt. put the effort there. Phonics won’t fix all the problems. Instead, they want more prisons.
Does the govt. realise they are there for the lower 90%?
What achievements can we see so far? Whose lives have been vastly improved by this govt.? Mill and factory closures, not just 20 out of work, hundreds at a time. Huge areas of the North is. will empty out. Who is benefitting?
Public service got a bit bloated but what’s getting bloated now? Maybe the unnecessary Ministry of Regulation? We swap one lot of bloated bureaucrats for another, no money saved. We’re wasting money on pulling out of deals. List goes on. it’s very hard to see the improvements for ordinary NZders.
The weather is warming up and the protests have started. Expect more.
Stirrer VV. Your comments had a taint of something spicy and off about them FTTT. If the other fellow w…s don’t show up don’t you worry let sleeping hounds lie.
and they crashed into the wharf not so long ago .
These clowns are all about lining theirs, and their business mates pockets while kicking the can further down the road. The further the better.
And it doesn’t matter what stripe of ideological flag you fly, red, blue or green or where you practice your politics, in local or central government.
Your one duty is to uphold the integrity of the system, pay obeisance to the crown that instituted it and win that box ticking popularity contest every 3 years.
You’d think after close to 200 years of the same ol, same ol that isnt working anymore we’d be clamouring for a change or at least exploring options and having a conversation about what’s needed for the future.
But no. Both left and right wings of the prevailing system think swapping the teams out and stopping the wheels from falling off to maintain the status quo is all that’s needed.
Doing the same thing expecting and different results and putting faith in the same type of people who got us into this mess expecting they will get us out masks the real problem.
Its not the players, they’re playing according to the rules. Its the game. It’s no longer fit for purpose.
You’re right the game is no longer fit for purpose. But don’t bring the Crown into it, That has been a shade over the general populace keeping the heat and icy winds from them caused by the unrestrained adventurism of those at top, just adding style to the toffs shows of supremacy. It’s the barons and lords and argonauts’ supremacy not the Crown’s.
The govt serves at the behest of the Crown and in its best interests, not the people of AO/NZ.
The whole system is designed to maintain that. As though what is good for the Crown is by default good for everyone else.
It isn’t.
Here’s food for thought: https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-person-seem-wise-global-study-finds-that-cultures-do-differ-but-not-as-much-as-youd-think-238808
The article reports on a cross cultural study on wisdom, defined by two key characteristics, reflective orientation and socio-emotional awareness. One takeaway message is that leaders who show both should be the ones in the drivers seat. Wishful thinking. Where there is no option to neoliberalism, where market-oriented reform and the reduction state involvement in the economy thorough privatization and austerity measures have become the common language in political and economic thinking, reflective thinking and/or joining the dots doesn’t seem to be a priority.
Report on RNZ National I think. Re egos, conspiracy theorists accept correction of facts from AI or other non-human sources! They just don’t want to have their faces rubbed in the mud, as we humans do congenitally, no matter how well-intentioned, especially on the internet.
In case you have missed this from union for the maritime NZ interests
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/06/ferry-fiasco-will-echo-for-decades-with-private-public-partnership/
Also there is a petition to give the willies to Willis about this. FPS this gummint ain’t got no shame.
About – https://www.together.org.nz/our_ferries_our_future?utm_campaign=our_ferries_our_future_email_o&utm_medium=email&utm_source=together