Todd Valster: Rail and Maritime Transport Union General Secretary on the new ferry announcement

As the future of the Cook Strait ferries becomes clearer, some are lamenting how long it's taken.  

Two new road and rail-enabled ferries and port-side infrastructure will be ready by late 2029.  

Rail and Maritime Transport Union General Secretary Todd Valster says while the cost isn't public yet, he's happy they will be rail-enabled.  

He told Andrew Dickens the delays haven't given people confidence.  

Valster says the previous Government's plan took ages to put together and there's been more delays as this Government's plan has emerged. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got a little bit more out of the government

(00:01):
on the cook Straight Ferries deal, but not a whole heap.
It's agreed to go forward with Winston Peter's proposal, which
will include road and rail decks and capacity for fifteen
hundred passengers. Some say though the capacity we will be
less than we currently have. He says. The plan has
two new ferries crossing Cooks Straight by Christmas twenty twenty nine,
which is where our old fairies basically run out of life,

(00:23):
and it claims he claimed anyway, that it will be
ultimately cheaper than the last government's option. So I'm joined
now by Rail and Maritime Transport Union spokesperson Todd Volster.
Hello Todd, good morning. We still don't know how much
is this going to cost, particularly particularly port side, so what's
your pick.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Look, the good news is the Roald that's the main thing.
So you know, we can't get past that. It was
going towards the monster advisory as groups.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, that was my third question. My question is how
much is this going to cost in your extvansion.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's completely unknown. We don't know what the breakout costs
with HI and iye is whether they were able to
make a deal or whether there's a deal there with
with High and Die around the canceled ferries. So that's
completely unknown what it's going to cost. That'll come out if.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
We don't know what a deal costs. If we don't
know what a deal costs, do we really have a deal?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, they're saying that it's commercially sensitive. They can't say
how much it's going to cost because that would that
would alter the bidding arrangement. So you know, the main
takeaway is they're rail enabled and we weren't going to
get mail enabled. But we can't go past how long
this has taken. I Rex was very very drawn out

(01:44):
and then we've had sixty months of limbo about what's
going to happen in the future. It's been very disturbing
for my members, my rail maritime transport members working out
attempts in both Wellington and Pickton. So yeah, the sure
side thing is definitely a concern and they're saying that
they'll tart them up a little bit, but it needs

(02:05):
to be more modest than what the Irax project was.
But how modest is it going to be?

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Well, exactly, they say a rebuild and picton because that's
really behind, but just a revamp of Wellington. But I
understood that Wellington the because there was making it earthquake proof.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, that was definitely a concern. It was also making
it one hundred year asset that it didn't need to be,
so you know, it's fair to say that there was
the infrastructure on land that blew things out. The deal
for the boats was an eat font deal. The original deal.
People talked about Ferraris and Toyotas or something or Corollas,
but it was never The concern around the boat build itself.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Was still on the port side. It's all in the
port side, all the port side, so they reckon the
boats are here by twenty twenty nine. There's an awful
lot of construction work that would have to happen so
that they can dock. Do you think the whole thing
is achievable? And also the current boats end of life
is twenty twenty nine, so we're cutting it pretty fine right.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
To the edge. Yeah, those boats are probably nearly three
decades old by that stage, so it's definitely taking it
to the edge. I understand from what mister Peace was
sing yesterday is that there has been significant surveys of
the boats and recommendations on how to keep them going
for that long. But you know just as well, we're
not in aviation running around with city of your old planes.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
And I think you if you turn to a Volster
told Volster from the rail m Maritime Union.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
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