Kerre Woodham: Incredible concerts and positive news

A little bit husky, a little bit hoarse, not as bad as Heather, but a little bit husky from belting out the classics at Eden Park last night with Metallica. Oh my god. Oh my god. What a show. What an event for the city. If you were there, you know, and you'll still be buzzing, and you will still think that is one of the best concerts you've ever been to. 

I used to quite like Metallica. I mean, you can't grow up in the 80s and not know who they are and not appreciate them as a consummate as consummate performance, but I wasn't a die-hard fan. I went down after work yesterday to get some merch because I was taking my eight-year-old grandson to the show last night because he loves them. I thought I like them, I'll go, I'll get him a T-shirt. A three-hour queue to get the merch!  And the town was heaving with people in Metallica T-shirts, and I thought, wow who on earth would queue for three hours? Who would travel from the far ends of the country and from across the Tasman to go to Metallica? After that show last night, I'll tell you who will be queuing for three hours, me, I will be. 

I've gone from they're good to oh my god. And I've got all of these years of music to catch up on. How fabulous. And just for the vibrancy it brought to the city. And I have to say Eden Park, and a number of us at ZB were invited along by Eden Park, so bear that in mind when I say what I say, but Eden Park is a fantastic venue. Everybody it seemed had great seats. The show itself, the stage was amazing. There were no problems for us getting out. We walked for 15 minutes, got picked up by his dad and out we went. The crowd was lovely. Honestly, I could rave all morning, but I'm not going to. I shan't. It was amazing and perhaps we can compare notes a little later. 

We do have news to talk about. And finally, finally, finally after years of wrangling, and after years of cost blowouts, and after years of political infighting, ladies and gentlemen, we have two new ferries. Well, not exactly – we have a contract for two new ferries. 

And yes, wait, yes, we did have a contract for two new ferries with the South Korean shipyard. That contract got torn up. Now we have a new contract for two new ferries with a Chinese shipbuilder. Port infrastructure will have to be rebuilt to accommodate the larger ferries while much of the Wellington side infrastructure can be rebuilt and upgraded. Picton they'll need new stuff, Wellington they can make do. 

And that's where the real savings are to be had for the taxpayer. The new ferries will be hybrids, able to switch between using diesel and electric power, and will have more capacity for trucks and rail wagons that exist at present. Winston Peters, who's been all over this from day one, said the new no-nonsense infrastructure programme was helping save the taxpayer money when the two ships enter service in 2029. 

The iRex project, that was the one ditched by the Coalition Government when it came to office, which included substantial costs for landside infrastructure, had ballooned to approximately $3 billion at the time of its cancellation. In 2023, Treasury officials said, yes, we know it looks like $3 billion, we think it could be more like $4 billion when we look at the cost overruns, when we benchmark it against average cost overruns and other similar projects. When even Grant Robertson, the former Finance Minister, says, oh no, we're spending way too much money, this is very concerning. When he says that, you know that it's getting out of control. 

There was no guarantee it was going to be around $4 billion. And the problem seems to have been, rather than delivering the much oft-quoted phrase of Nicola Willis', a Toyota Corolla, under the spell of the former government, there were consultants and officials going, oh my god, we can build a state-of-the-art shipping infrastructure within New Zealand, and it's going to have all the bells and whistles and the very latest technology, and yes, we do have to build completely new infrastructure to service it, but my god, can we look what we can do. And they were given full rein to go off and design something and create something really beautiful that just kept getting more and more expensive.  

The new ferries are expected to replace the current fleet by the end of 2029, and possibly there will be cost overruns, and possibly it won't be 2029. I spoke to the chair of Ferry Holdings, Chris Mackenzie before we came on air, wait till you hear the attitude he takes, the pragmatic, no-nonsense, no-frills, let's just get the job done approach. That's what was needed and that's what we've got. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carry Wooden Morning's podcast from News Talks.
He'd be a little bit husky, little bit horse. Not
as bad as heither, but a little bit husky from
belting out the Classics at Eden Park last night with Metallica.
Oh my god, Oh my god, what a show, What
an event for the city. I mean, if you were there,

(00:30):
you know, and you'll still be buzzing, and you will
still think that is one of the best concerts you've
ever been to. I used to quite like Metallica. I mean,
you can't grow up in the eighties and not know
who they are and not appreciate them as a consummate,
as consummate performers. But I wasn't a die hard fan.
I went down after work yesterday to get some merch

(00:51):
because I was taking my eight year old grandson to
the show last night. He loves them, and I thought, yeah,
I like them. I'll go. I'll get him a T shirt.
A three hour queue to get the merch, and the
town was heaving with people in Metallica T shirts, and
I thought, Wow, who on earth would cueue for three hours?

(01:13):
Who would travel from the far ends of the country
and from across the Tasman to go to Metallica after
that show last night. I'll tell you who will be
queuing for three hours, getting up at two in the
morning to be there at five am. Me I will be.
I've gone from you. No, They're good to Oh my god,
and I've got all of these years of music to

(01:35):
catch up on. How fabulous. If you were there last night,
loved to have a chat to you a little later
in the show, round about eleven o'clock. Compare notes, if
you've been to other Metallica concerts, how does it rate?
And just for the for the vibrancy it brought to
the city. And I have to say Eden Park And

(01:55):
you know those number of us that said b were
invited along by Eden Park, So take that. Bear that
in mind when I say what I say. But Eden
Park is in a fantastic venue. Everybody, it seemed, had
great seats the show itself, the stage was amazing. There
were no problems for us getting in, no problems for

(02:17):
us getting out. We walked for fifteen minutes, got picked
up by his dad and out we went. The crowd
was lovely. Honestly, I could rave all morning, but I'm
not going to I shan't. It was amazing and perhaps
we can compare notes a little later. We do have
news to talk about. And finally, finally, finally, after years

(02:41):
of wrangling, and after years of cost blowouts, and after
years of political infighting, ladies and gentlemen, we have two
new Fairies. Well, not exactly. We have a contract for
two new Fairies. And yes, wait, yes we did have
a contract for two new Fairies with the South Korean shipyard.
That contract got torn up. Now we have a new

(03:02):
contract for two new Fairies with a Chinese shipbuilder. Port
infrastructure will have to be rebuilt to accommodate the larger ferries,
while much of the Wellington side infrastructure can be rebuilt
and upgraded picked and they'll need new stuff Wellington, they
can make do and that's where the real savings are

(03:25):
to be had for the taxpayer. The new ferries will
be hybrids, able to switch between using diesel and electric power,
and will have more capacity for trucks and rail wagons
that exist at present. Winston Peters, who's been all over
this from day one, said the new no nonsense infrastructure
program was helping save the taxpayer money when the two

(03:47):
ships enter service, in twenty twenty nine. The i Rex
project that was the one ditched by the coalition government
when it came to office, which included substantial costs for
landside infrastructure, had ballooned to approximately three billion dollars at
the time of its cancelation in twenty twenty three. Treasury

(04:10):
officials said, yeah, we know it looks like three billion.
We think it could be more like four billion when
we look at the cost over runs, when we benchmarket
against average cost over runs and other similar projects. When
even Grant Robertson, the former Finance minister, says, oh, no,

(04:31):
we're spending way too much money. This is very concerning
when he says that, you know that it's getting out
of control. There was no guarantee it was going to
be around four billion, and the problem seems to have been,
rather than delivering the much oft quoted phrase of Nicola
Willison's a Toyota Corolla, under the spell of the former government,

(04:54):
there were consultants and officials going, oh my god, we
can build a state of the arch shipping infrastructure within
New Zealand and it's going to have all the bells
and whistles in the very latest technology. Yes, we do
have to build completely new infrastructure to service it. But
my god, can we look what we can do? And
they were given full rein to go off and design

(05:17):
something and create something really beautiful that just kept getting
more and more and more and more expensive. Here you're saying, oh, yeah, no,
you can get a couple of fairies in there. We'll
just have to yet, We'll just tweak that and yeah,
just put another hole there. Yeah, there you go. We've
got a fairy that can get in, that can get out,

(05:38):
that can cross the cook straight, that can take trucks
and wagons and people. The new fairies are expected to
replace the current fleet by the end of twenty twenty nine,
and possibly there will be cost overrus and possibly it
won't be twenty twenty nine. But wait until you I
spoke to the chair of Faery Holdings, Chris McKenzie before

(06:00):
we came on air, because he's got a very full day,
as you can imagine. But wait till you hear the
attitude he takes, the pragmatic, no nonsense, no frills, let's
just get the job done approach. That's what was needed
and that's what we've got for more from Kerry Wood
and mornings. Listen live to News Talks A B from

(06:20):
nine am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio