In his last State of the Nation address, Winston viciously attacked Chippy and made it clear that while Chippy was leader, Winston would never cut a deal with Labour.
Chippy ain’t no chump.
He returned the favour and threw Winston under the Ferry by reminding everyone of this…
The Labour Party leader says in hindsight, two mega-ferries might not have been the best option for the Interislander.
The government is planning to buy two rail-enabled ferries for the state-run service, and they will be ready to sail on Cook Strait in 2029.
They will be 20-metres shorter than those planned under the Labour-led iReX project, which the National-led Government scrapped at the end of 2023.
That was because of the spiralling costs.
Chris Hipkins says maybe Cabinet under the Labour-New Zealand First coalition, shouldn’t have accepted Winston Peters’ plans when he was State Owned Enterprises minister.
“Two mega ferries in the first place probably wasn’t the wisest decision, two smaller ferries which is where the government has landed now might have been better from the outset, that wasn’t what Winston Peters initially recommended.”
But Hipkins doubts the new plan will cost less than iReX.
…so this is a problem that Winston is ‘solving’ that he himself made.
The idea he’s going to get it cheaper is highly unlikely.
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Winstone is desperate for power and wants to remain in parliament, he is an old cunt, a master of spin and as he gets older, he is becoming more cynical and extremely nasty. He also plays on peoples prejudices and naiveties he needs to be ousted out at the next election him and his bunch of hasbians in his party.
Winston of course denies this and has called Chippy a liar.
Of course, you would Bob the first (believe winstone) it takes one to know one.
At what point will it be accepted that a 220m+ ferry (rail enabled or not) was not able to fit in the ports at either end, without massive spend, nor transit Tory Channel? Therefore they were always inappropriate for the service and Labour/Kiwirail screwed up.
Also, anyone who calls ships ‘boats’ is clearly ignorant. The current Finance Minister is on this list…
Most of the port infrastructure costs in the previous proposal was to do with earthquake-proofing facilities at both ends. This will need to happen anyway unless the Nats take a crazy risk. The final costs (including the break fees with Hyundai) will be interesting and very likely higher than the original proposal.
And even that assumes that:
1.) the existing ferries won’t become too unsafe to use before the new ones are built – causing a mad panic and extra cost to keep patching them up.
2.) David Seymour won’t threaten to scupper the deal because of his obsession with drowning the State in a bathtub, privatising everything and handing our democracy over to the richest people among us.
AB Goodf point about the Changeling’s line.
So how are the new ones that are 8 meters wider going to fit through the Chanel and load if we don’t build wider loading warves
Doesn’t alter the fact that Winston was the architect of the Mega Ferry plan and he is the liar for denying this.
Chris Hipkins taking the neoliberal, anti-infrastructure position, and showing his dishonesty in the process?
HOW COULD WE HAVE PREDICTED THIS
I don’t see it as “glorious”. Hipkins should know how this will get reported across swathes of media that are hostile to Labour (i.e. most of the media). It will be framed as “Hipkins admits Labour made a mistake over ferries”. Hipkins is trying to be too cute and clever – modern politics requires relentless takedowns of the other side without this sort of potential ambiguity and subtlety that is missed by most voters.
The problem is Winstone is like a sly old fox and he’s hoping the chickens will come out of their coup and they are, sometimes it is best not to take the bait. I know it’s hard but it’s a bit like ignoring somebody and it bugs them when they don’t get the reaction and attention they seek. Let the fox play games he will tire and build up a repertoire of evidence and then pounce when the time is right. At the moment the fox is enticing the chickens, and the chickens are getting flustered and distracted from their tasks to get back into government, work on their policies, and try to stick together.
Gordon Campbell seems cynical but not unrealistically so
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2504/S00002/on-the-governments-latest-ferries-scam.htm
…Once again, people are getting a shoddier version of an essential public service while being told…ooooh, but look at the revenue being saved! Not that they stand to benefit. Constantly, the public is being told it deserves to receive less for the taxes it pays, and shouldn’t expect anything better for its children – who, one day, will have to foot the bill for the deferred renewal of those already shabby port facilities.
In that respect, the ferries debacle is a prime example of the downward spiral in the quality of public services that this government is prepared to fund. Wellingtonians – and the foreign tourists using the ferries- are being told to put up with the rundown Wellington ferry terminal in perpetuity because hey…only losers use the ferry terminal, and no-one in the Beehive thinks that Auckland voters give a toss about the ferries, anyway….
Still cannot stand Hipkins, low fruit crit from Hipkins means 0 – zero – compared to the utter loss of belief in Labour that he presided over
What a Hick Dick . Get Rid. Willy Jackson for leader.
There is nothing wrong with Chippy as long as his party has some good policies, and we see some changes, and this will not be an easy task because our country along with many others is extremely divided.
‘Division’ isn’t an issue. Not crushing opponents of traditional New Zealand values like socialism is.
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