Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor ahead of the Government's announcement on the Interislander ferries

The Minister for Rail has confirmed a much-anticipated announcement on Interislander ferries is days away.  

The Government pulled out of contracts for two new ships in late 2023, citing cost blowouts, and are yet to announce the alternative. 

In December, it was promised Winston Peters would announce a solution by the end of March - which is Monday. 

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls speculates as to whether or not there'll be an update tomorrow - and what we can expect. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I am joined now by News Talk Z to B
political editor Jason Will's. Good morning, Oh, good morning. We've
just been talking about the supermarket announcement which is expected
at ten a m. This morning. Do you have any
idea what might be announced?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, Well, as I understand that Nicola Willis is going
to be announcing sort of the next steps into how
we can get a new competitor into the market. So
we won't be getting sort of an announcement that says,
as of tomorrow ASDA or Aldi or one of the
other big ones are going to be hitting New Zealand
Shore and going to be setting up shopper everywhere across
the country. More like she's just announcing the facilities in

(00:49):
which they're going to be able to arrive here. Nikola
Willis has long been talking about the fact that to
drive down competition, we need more players in the market,
and that's what I understand that she's going to be
announcing today. She's in terms of how she does this,
I think that's a little bit more of the question.
It could be changes to tax settings. It could be
changes to the laws around the way that existing players

(01:12):
have to free up some of the land that they have.
So we'll watch this one with bated breath because it's
an issue that a lot of people that care about.
I mean, you know, we've got inflation under control, but
the cost of supermarket and the cost of living is
still a profound issue for many people.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
And you don't imagine that there will be any discussion
about how we can speed up competition by doing taking
any measures against the existing players.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, I mean they could well be. They've got there's
the Commerce Commission and of course as the Grocery Commissioner
as well, whose job is to specifically do those things.
So there could be some expanded powers there. But the
supermarkets will fight this super nail. I mean, they say
that they are competitive, they say that they just work
in a very low margin environment and this is just

(01:57):
the way that it is. But Nicola Willis is not
buying what they're selling.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
But we're doing the sniff taste for an announcement about
an announcement. Do we we announce anything this morning?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well, I mean, you've always got to be worried, don't you,
Because this has become a thing with New Zealand government.
It's not just the previous one, which ironically this government
called them out for, but this one's done it as well.
I mean, you'll remember the announcement in December about the ferries,
which was an announcement of announcement. So I do think
we're going to get something today. I think it's not
going to be a meety as I said, Asda is

(02:29):
coming to New Zealand, but it is going to be
we have done this to facilitate that.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I would say, Okay, speaking about theories, we do have
an announcement on theories tomorrow, is that right?

Speaker 3 (02:39):
We do? We do. We know this for a couple
of reasons because back when we did have that announcement
of announcement, we were told that essentially there would be
a decision made before the end of March. Well, tomorrow
is March thirty first, is the last Cabinet meeting of March,
and Winston Peter's in the House on Thursday said that
people would only have to wait four more sleeps to

(03:02):
get an announcement about the fairies. So on this one,
it sounds like Nikola Willer had something ready to go
and maybe about June or July this year. But Winston
Peters came in and said, hang on a second, I
think I can find a better deal. So Cabinet said, okay,
well you have until the end of March to come
back with your deal and then we can look at
that versus Nicola Willis's deal and decide which one we

(03:23):
want to go with. So as well as getting the
best deal for New Zealanders as well as, you know,
figuring out the next step, so not just the ferries,
but this surrounding infrastructure. I'm also really curious to see
who won out. Is it Nicola or is it Winston.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I feel like this morning on the Sunday station, we're
just focusing on very long running debates. We've done stadiums,
we're doing supermarkets, we're doing ferries. But look, it wasn't
a good week for the Greens, was it.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
No? No, it was a terrible week for the Greens.
I mean Tomatha Paul made those comments about police on
the beat and potentially all they doing is taking away
homeless people's stuff, and she said that at a university
event on the disestablishment disestablishing of the police, or it

(04:11):
had some name like the Radical disestablishment of police or something, which,
of course, you know, a lot of people cocked an
eyebrow at a member of Parliament and an elected official
talking about the fact that we should have fewer police
and people are actually not finding them actually helpful on
the street. In fact the opposite, you know, she says
that people find them a hindrance and they don't like

(04:33):
seeing them around. So Chris Chris Hipkins, Chris Luxon, sorry,
the Prime Minister said the Greens were in Lalla Land.
We had actually Chris Hipkins, the Labor leader, so there
would be bedfellows calling the comments stupid. So they're not
finding a lot of love with their even their own
opposition parties rather than the government as well. So it's

(04:54):
definitely one to watch. The Greens have really been in
a bit of a spiral when it comes to law
and order, recently specifically around Tamotha Paul making these comments
first about the fact that most of the vast majority
people in prison are there because they have mental health
issues or they've committed like sort of low grade crimes,
which is absolutely the furthest from the truth. So I

(05:15):
think they need to be worried about.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
This one look and just finally, Jason, we're seeing some
pretty terrible scenes coming out of me Emma. What has
the government's response been. New Zealand government's response being.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, they they've given two million dollars worth of aid
from the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a pot of
money that m FAT has on hand when there was
a disaster like this. So the death toll is climbing.
The most recent numbers I saw that said that it
was close to a thousand at this point, which is
obviously tragic. So New Zealand government giving it always starts

(05:47):
off small and if it needs to be bigger, it
will be bigger. So I wouldn't be surprised if we
saw more money being given to the relief efforts over there.
But for now, we're keeping a watching brief in terms
of if any New Zealanders were caught up at all
this stage. It doesn't look like there have been any
New Zealand fatalities, but we'll keep an eye on that one.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Jason
has always very much appreciated.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it b from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio