Chris Mackenzie: Ferry Holdings Chair blames lacklustre service on government purchases

The team purchasing the newly public-owned Cook Strait ferries says the process can't be compared to private contractors.

Kiwirail's new ferries aren't expected to be in service until Christmas 2029.

Ferry Holdings Chair, Chris Mackenzie, says part of the issue is the Government is buying new ferries - not second-hand.

He also told Heather du Plessis-Allan they fulfil different needs, with the Government providing a year-round service, which the private sector can't afford.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you were listening at this time last night, you
would have heard the boss of Blue Bridge telling us
about his new fairy that's just arrived seven months after
ordering it. Tell you who also heard that? The competition,
the people buying our new publicly owned fairies, they're not happy.
Chris mackenzie is the chair of that business, Faerry Holdings Limited.
Hello Chris, good evening. Okay, what are you unhappy about?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, firstly, I'm not happy. First unhappy. Firstly, I'd like
to congratulate Blue Bridge. It's a good thing to have
a new fairy. I think where the discussion is around
and that is comparing Blue Bridges purchasing and ours. If

(00:41):
you go back, the Ministerial Advisory Group, which was three
private sector people, advised government last year that there were
no suitable feries secondhand in the configuration that the government needed.
And just what I mean by that is government provides

(01:02):
capacity all year round that the private sector can't afford.
So there's three thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Passengers, not because it's it's because of its rail capacity.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's rail nothing nothing to do with rail capacity.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay, what is it?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Then? It's the Ministry of Advisory Group advised ministers there
was no secondhand ferries in the configuration. And what I
mean by that is the size the passenger capacity that
the government traditionally provides, so that if you look at

(01:38):
the Kaiaay of the Kaikaki, for example, it's thirteen hundred
and fifty passengers, whereas the two Blue Bridges are five
hundred passengers. So the government provides that if you like
that large capacity, that covers your Christmas periods and everything else,
and it wears the cost of carrying all of that

(01:59):
capacity twelve months of the year.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
So basically Olivia, which Bluebridge have just brought in seven months,
is simply not big enough.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
It doesn't have the passenger capacity. It has the cars
and the trucks and so forth, it doesn't have that
passenger capacity. And so what the government does is, rather
than having New Zealanders complain that they can't get from
north to south and vice versa over the holiday period
because of the restricted numbers, the government does provide that

(02:30):
larger number of yeah passengers.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
How come though they could decide just before Christmas, let's
buy a fairy and then they've got the thing pulling
into Wellington Harbor seven months later, and we are what
seven years down the track and we've got nothing. We
haven't even we don't even know who's building our fairies.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
No, we don't.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
How can we can't move as fast as them? Chris Well?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Hang on. New Zealand Railways purchased both the Kai Teki
and the kaya Rahee second hand within the same time
span as Bluebridge. Did I remember now, right?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
You guys have been together since February. That's March, April, May,
June July, so even five months and five months and
they had already bought the vessel. It was probably leaving
Denmark within five months.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
No. No, what I'm saying is, if you go back
to when the Araitory lost its propeller, the rail company
was able to buy the Stena Allegra and have it
in New Zealand within the same time span. The government
decided last year it would not go with secondhand theories

(03:37):
and it asked for two new fiories to be built.
Buying a new theory is not a matter of just
going into a shipyard.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
No, I know that, But I mean, surely even the
negotiations to just like you haven't even decided who you're
going to buy it from, and it's been five months.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
That's donkeys if the Minister of Rail announced on Tuesday
that we had reduced from what was it fifty one
ship guards down to sixth and.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Those now I'm not impressed by this, Chris, So what
where's the fairy? We will sign a twenty nine. I
still am not. I tell you that, Chris, go away,
do me a favor. Go away if you have time.
I know you're a busy man. Go away and come
back with a better explanation for why you people take

(04:27):
so long in the public service to do things, why
these guys in the private service can do it so fast.
I appreciate your time. Thank you. That's Chris Mackenzie, Chair
of Faery Holdings Limited. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.