Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the Parliamentary debate about ferries

A political blame game around Cook Strait ferries.

KiwiRail, Maritime New Zealand, and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission are all investigating Interislander's Aratere, which ran aground on Friday after experiencing steering issues.

The Government pulled the plug on new mega-ferries and upgraded portside infrastructure, soon after taking power.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper unpacks the controversy further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Politics was centric credit, check your customers and get payments.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Certainty. Barry so, Senior Political correspondence with US.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Now, hey Barry, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes, So what did the snap debate in Parliament about
the fairies find out? Ah?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Not a lot really, but it was the ministerial questions.
I think that found a lot more than what the
debate did. It was claimed in Parliament during question time
that Winston Peters, when he was with the Durn government,
was the minister responsible for the faery contract which blew
out from seven hundred and fifty million to three point

(00:32):
two billion. Well, I talked to Winston Peters about this
and he said that yes, he did sign off on
two ferries, but they would have been the same size
and dimension of the fairies that are crossing the Strait
at the moment. But the contract that was signed by
Labor contracted bigger, much bigger fairies, which meant that infrastructure

(00:56):
on either side of the Strait had to be upgraded.
So that we're sayings all the money came from.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
When he was the Soe minister. He said, yes, you
can get two fairies, but he said two small fairies.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Two ferries the size are the ones that were currently operated.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And then when at the change of government in twenty
twenty and New Zealand first was out.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
After that, it was Labor who then went for the
big ones.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
The big ones. Yeah right, So the Prime Minister he
faced questions about it in Parliament today and he said
the Labor led government had no idea of what they
were getting the country into.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
This government knows how to run economics, We know how
to manage projects, right, unlike that government who somehow thought
it was perfectly reasonable to go spend seven hundred and
fifty million dollars which is tunes into three point two
billion dollars and rising. You have no economic credentials, no
economic record. You haven't been able to deliver a pizza,

(01:45):
let alone fairies.

Speaker 5 (01:47):
Can the Prime Minister confirm the cost of the fairies
themselves was only twenty one percent of the total project cost.
That is, the garage was going to cost four times
as much as the sh that was going in it.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
I can.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Eighty percent of the costs were now associated with port
redevelopments of Wellington and Picton for big ships that actually
didn't work.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
See that's ridiculous because really that why would you go
ahead with ships that didn't wouldn't fit for perspose when
it came to docking on either side of the strait.
Now I can confirm that the Ministerial Advisory Group met
last night to consider an option for the new fairies,
which will no doubt be smaller and able to birth

(02:29):
at these on either side of the strait. The current
ships have to be maintained for at least two years.
Act of course, wants to sell off forty nine percent
of Kiwi roll. So look, this is a really vexed issue.
But once if they sign a contract for fairies that
basically the equivalent to those that are sailing the straight,

(02:53):
now it seems to be the end of the real problem.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Barry, did the ministerial meeting make a decision last night.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
They haven't made a decision that's going to go to cabinet.
So they had a discussion on it, so they'll no
doubt probably go to cabinet hopefully.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Do you know if they formed a view I can
preferred view.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
I don't know that. Okay, I know they meant.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
It interesting, but they are moving at pace right they are.
This thing was dragging on and then all of a
sudden the ship runs aground and now they're having a mets.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
They have to make cont I mean, it takes time
to build a.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Ship that three strikes laws a bit of a dog,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, See, I found it incredible that I heard you say,
and I tried to check it out that if the
previous records of criminals in New Zealander expunge that was
sentenced under three strikes, what's the point of bringing it back. Well,
there is a point in bringing it back, but people
that have had two strikes they should be still held accountable.

(03:47):
They haven't do rehabilitated in any way if they're before
the court again. So I find that incredible, And I
know you're going to be speaking to Nicole McKee about it,
and i'd like to here or explanation on that, because
I think it is ridiculous. Barry.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
I don't think that this New Zealand first invoking the
agree to disagree provision is a big deal, is it.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
No.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I've seen the media go crazy on this today and
it's really frustrated me saying cracks and the coalition, Well,
you know, in every coalition that's taken place since nineteen
ninety six, there have been clauses in the coalition agreements
to agree to disagree, and that simply means on this
occasion it was a fairly minor disagreement, and that Winston

(04:34):
Peter is one of the whole COVID inquiry Commission of
Inquiry scrapped and started out, had to restart it because
he felt that it was biased, would have been biased
towards labor, and probably with good reason. But to agree
to disagree, I think is perfectly legitimate in what is
a coalition type guy.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, thank you, I thought so too. Okay, Barry really appreciated.
It's Barry so Per, senior political correspondent. For more from
hither to Listen Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
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