Heather du Plessis-Allan: The ferry "announcement" is embarrassing

I think we can all have a guess at why the Government announced the ferry decision two weeks before Christmas. 

Because this is embarrassing, isn’t it? 

What have they been doing for the last year? 

How do you go a year after cancelling the mega ferries and still have nothing to show for it? 

No deal. No ferries. No price tag. 

Not even any detail on how much it's costing to break the deal on the mega ferries. 

All we’ve got is rumours and if those rumours are right, then we are going to spend more than twice what those two mega ferries were going to cost to buy two smaller ferries. 

Those mega ferries were $550m. The medium sized ferries will apparently cost $900m, plus a $300m break fee for the mega ferries. 

That’s $1.2b. 

We’d have been better off keeping the big boys, onselling them and using the money to buy the little ones. 

And don’t expect anything anytime soon. It won't be until the second half of next year before we actually know what’s happening. 

Time is of the essence because our existing ferries are running on hopes and prayers and masking tape. 

We’ve had one floating without power in the Cook Strait, another run aground on a sandy beach and various other mishaps. 

Now, I don’t think the mega ferries were the solution. 

But I’m starting to feel like this deal, whatever it is, could be even worse. I’m starting to think this might make the mega ferries look like value for money. 

And that's not a great outcome from National and Nicola Willis, who’ve told us they’re great at striking deals and managing money. 

Because this does not look like that at all. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I think we can all see now why the
government's announced the fairy decision two weeks before Christmas. A.
This is embarrassing, isn't it. I mean, what have they
been doing for the last year. How do you go
a year from canceling the Mega fairies and still have
nothing to show for it. No deal, no fairies, no
price tag, not even any detail for us on how
much we're going to have to pay to break the
deal on the Mega fairies. All we've got is rumors,

(00:22):
and if those rumors are right, then we are going
to spend more than twice what we were going to
spend for those two Mega fairies. We're going to spend
more than twice on that to buy two smaller fairies.
Those Mega fairies were five hundred and fifty million bucks.
The medium sized feries that we're probably going to end
up with now will apparently cost nine hundred million bucks
plus and you add them the three hundred million dollar
break fee for the Mega fairies, and that's one point

(00:43):
two billion dollars more than double. We'd have been better
off on these numbers, keeping the big boys and then
on selling them and using them to buy the using
the money to buy the little ones. Don't expect we
waited a year already, don't expect to get any kind
of announcement anytime soon, because it's not going to be
apparently until the second half of next year before we
actually know what's happening. And we're going to have to

(01:03):
wait five years for these bad boys to actually hit
the water. And the thing about this is that time
is of the essence, because it's not as if our
existing fairies are doing well. They're running on hopes and
prayers and masking tape. By the looks of things. We've
had one floating without power in the cook Strait already.
That's very dangerous. And we've had another one running around
on a sandy beach and you don't need me to
tell you again that's very dangerous. And then there are

(01:24):
various other weird little mishaps have been going on as well. Now.
To be fair to the National led government, I don't
think that the mega Fairies worth a solution. I don't
think it's a smart idea to chuck an entire train
on a boat and then send it across the water.
I mean, if you thought about how heavy a train is.
But I'm starting to feel like this deal, whatever it is,
could be actually worse than the Mega Fairies deal. And

(01:45):
I'm starting to think that this might make the Mega
Fairies deal look like value for money, and that is
not a great outcome. By the way, especially for the
Nats and Nikoli. Willis because the pair of them have
told us they great at striking deals, they really great
at managing money. Well, what we're seeing so far does
not look like that at all. For more from The
Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talks at B

(02:06):
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