Winston Peters: Minister for Rail unveils details of new Cook Strait ferry replacement plan

The Minister-in-charge has promised Interislander's ferries are safe until our new ones arrive.

The Government's announced specifications for two ships - rail enabled and larger than the current pair - for roll out by Christmas 2029.

Picton's port infrastructure will be replaced, but money will be saved by modifications and refurbishment in Wellington.

Previous plans were canned in 2023, after cost blowouts.

Minister for Rail Winston Peters says KiwiRail's given him an overview of the existing ships.

"They are very confident that these present utilities are going to be capable of going well past 2029."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Winston's ferry plan gets the tick of approval from Cabinet
or two techs actually, because we get two new fairies
crossing the Cook Straight by Christmas twenty twenty nine. That
is the promise. They'll have road and rail decks in
capacity for fifteen hundred passengers. They'll be longer than the
current vessels, smaller than the canceled byres ones, but cheaper.
Minister for Ral Winston peters with me hime, Minister, Hello,

(00:23):
you happy with this?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes, sir? Well by Christmas twenty twenty nine you'll have
two brand new inn Island fairies. They'll be going across
the Cook Straight and they will take you, your family,
the caravan, the dog and all the rest across the
Cook Straight, which is what most is yell does and
a mass majority want.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Will we have in the meantime problems getting across the
Cook Straight? Will the revamp of pectin Will the upgrade
to Wellington affect the current ferry operation?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Look, I saw the experts who are doing the advice
to cure right now in terms of the existing fairies,
their maintenance, what's required. They gave me a serious overview
today of how much work they've done on it, and
they are very confident that these present utilities are going
to be capable of going well past twenty twenty nine,

(01:17):
which is the date with the transfer to two brand
new Fairies.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
So we'll have one hundred percent capacity as it stands
right now, right through until the end of twenty twenty
nine when we're expected to get the new ones. Yes, okay,
And what do you make of the reaction today to
some of this? I mean, the Maritime Union has said
that it was a big mistake for Nickolo Willis to
cancel those contracts back in December of twenty twenty three.
You don't agree with that, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Look, the problem was that we had ordered two fairies
at four hundred and one million dollars in May of
twenty twenty and it blew out where the fairies were
going to be less than twenty percent of the cost
and the infrastructure was going to cost over eighty percent,
and so it was just impossible when Treasurer was saying
this could go past four billion dollars, see what went wrong?

(02:07):
So we went out to save billions of dollars with
us practical common sense.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Solution was Nikola Willis's solution, not practical in common sense
because it didn't include rail.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It was Nicola Willis's canceling of the IRX project. It
was totally vindicated by this decision, because we'd have bought
those two fairies, built them, not being able to use
them because we didn't have the infrastructure, we'd had to
put them on the international market, and it would been
a bias market. We'd have been taken for the cleaners,
because when you've got to get rid of two boats,

(02:40):
you got no options, then down comes the price. We
hadn't lost a mass amount of money on.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
That, Okay, understand that. But her solution was to follow
the advice of this MINISTERI or group was it not,
and they recommended buying two fairies that weren't rail enabled.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, the problem with that was that her group looked
at one option and didn't look at the alternatives. And
the alternatives when we were working on them, in terms
of being rail and wrote enable so to speak, were
much cheaper, much more enduring, and in line with the
decisions made by there. I say, some wiser all the

(03:17):
politicians going back decades and decades ago.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Do you think does it worry you that the minister
was just going to go along with the Ministerial Advisory
Group and potentially by us two fairies that were more
expensive and not rail enabled.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Hang on, this is a minister who listened to other
cabinet advice and said, okay, let's suspend what I was
thinking about and let's see what you guys can do.
And we went out and consulted as widely as we could,
with all manner of shipping companies, with all manner of people,
with the total industry, with the Port of Marlborough, with

(03:54):
SEDA Port and Willington and Kerrie Rail, and we came
up with a much better option. So she made the
right decision twice.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
I suppose she did, Hey, this Benjamin Doyle stuff. Are
you more worked up over the posts themselves or the
fact that the media didn't report on them until you did.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, look you've seen over the past any MP that's
got something in my way of correspondence? Or dare I
say phone calls or dare I say posts that have
come under investigation. Those people have been taken to the
cleaners by the media. And here comes someone with all
sorts of posts now being taken down because they are

(04:32):
suspicious as to their content. And not one mainstream media
person was asking them for days and days and days.
But go back further than that. This was all there
before he was chosen to be a replacement candidate in
Parliament and promptly he pulled it down. And now my
question is to the Green parties, what on earth do

(04:54):
you think this parliament is? Why you did you yourself
not know this? In the meantime, he's been screaming out
for peerity blockers being made available to all sorts of
children at the taxpayer's expense, giving children a sexual prevalence
preference and choices when they're far too young to make
up their minds, where all the international evidence says this

(05:14):
is so dangerous, and he pressed on with it. That's
the point I'm asking the media to go and ask
him the questions and ask the Greens what on earth
they think this is about. Now here's the point on
my post. There have been thousands of Rainbow people backing
what we're saying and saying this is just so damning
of their own position, which is legitimate, which is not

(05:36):
to be challenged, but worst of all, contaminates what they
think they are. All right, this is the Shamans that's
turned up here.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Winston Peters appreciate your time. The Minister for Rail on
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