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Scoop
3 hours ago
- Scoop
Eye-Watering Break Fee For Botched Ferries
It has been revealed that the Government is paying a staggering $144 million to cancel the previous contract for the new Interislander ferries. 'Nicola Willis' terrible decision-making has now cost taxpayers more than half a billion dollars in total – $671 million – with no new ferries to show for it,' Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. 'The $144 million break fee is on top of money already paid to Hyundai, which takes the amount of taxpayer money National has poured down the drain to $222 million. The rest is project management, landside infrastructure and paying to wind down the project – totalling more than half a billion. 'This proves Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis have absolutely no clue what they're doing and are just making things worse. 'The amount of taxpayer money they've wasted with absolutely nothing to show for it makes a mockery of every time they've said they can't afford something. 'They can find more than half a billion dollars to botch a ferry project, but can't find any money to build homes, create jobs or fund the health system properly. 'People are struggling with the cost of living while Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon's economic decisions run aground and sink,' Tangi Utikere said. Notes: Original estimates of $1.16 billion referenced in the Beehive PR includes the originally budgeted $300 million for the break fee plus the cost of ongoing maintenance of the current ferries. The contract was originally going to deliver the ferries next year, in 2026. The current projection for new ferries is at least three years later.
RNZ News
7 hours ago
- RNZ News
Ethnic leaders call for more resources for better social cohesion
Representatives from the National Ethnic and Faith Community Leaders Network meeting opposition leader Chris Hipkins in Auckland on 15 August 2025. Photo: Supplied Ethnic leaders are calling for more resources to tackle issues such as social cohesion and health disparities at a meeting with opposition leader Chris Hipkins in Auckland on Friday. Representatives from the National Ethnic and Faith Community Leaders Network attended the meeting, with the Labour Party's ethnic communities spokesperson Jenny Salesa also present. After the event that was closed to media, Hipkins said they've discussed issues concerning the general public, such as employment, health, homes and cost of living, as well as these specific to migrant and religious communities, such as immigration. He said life has become tougher for the ethnic communities since he met the same group last year. "Issues around the cost of living have gotten worse. I think issues around polarisation continue to be a real area of concern when I speak to our community," he said. "More tension within the communities and more overt displays of racism within the communities are something I'm very concerned about." Hipkins said "the many faces of our community" needed to be reflected in the way services were being delivered such as health and education. When asked what would he do about the problems, Hipkins said it would be reflected in the Labour Party's policies before the next election. "Part of the reason that we're here is that we want to make sure that we're listening to New Zealanders as we develop our policies," he said. Dame Ranjna Patel, Chris Hipkins, and the Labour Party's ethnic communities spokesperson Jenny Salesa. Photo: Supplied Social cohesion was a topic that concerned Dame Ranjna Patel the most. "The social cohesion in the ethnic community and mainstream is very divided at the moment, and it's just progressively getting louder and more of a problem," she said. Patel said the differences of all the ethnic communities are so wide and groups should come together for solutions. "We do need to work together to give bite size problems with bite size solutions, not just say this is a issue, fix it. It's too hard for every government to do. We have to have a budget that lets us do that," she said. "To get communities to develop themselves to be able to deal with these, we'll need a lot more resources." Debbie Chin, president of the New Zealand Chinese Association's Wellington branch. Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen New Zealand Chinese Association's Wellington branch president Debbie Chin's area of focus was the health of wellbeing of Asian New Zealanders. "We're looking for improved access to services for our Chinese and Asian communities," Chin said. "That means that we need services that meet the needs of our population, and we also need to have providers who can... understand our culture." "We need diversification across all of those areas, across service delivery, cross workforce, cross funding and commissioning and the people in the decision making seats." Chin pointed to a recent report which found that almost half of Asian parents said their children have been bullied at school in the past 12 months often associated with racism. "I hope [the government] will put investment in to ensure that our people are not bullied and that the children understand that's not acceptable and that we build inclusion and social cohesion across our community, in our workplaces and in our schools," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Minister for Rail Winston Peters on the $671m scrapped ferry fiasco
Winston Peters and the Interislander ferry Photo: RNZ Minister for Rail Winston Peters says talks with shipbuilders for new replacement ferries are progressing well, defending the cost of cancelling the iReX ferry project. The coalition government cancelled the previous contract for two new ferries after the budget blew out to nearly $3 billion. A final $144m payment to previous contractor Hyundai brought the total project costs to $671 million. Peters said that was "only fair", saying the "decision to cancel Project iReX was never a reflection on Hyundai". Labour's leader Chris Hipkins said Peters was the minister who had signed off on the iReX project in the first place. "It's somewhat ironic that he's now the one casting around to blame other people for a project he set up." Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi He said the decision to cancel the project was a "knee-jerk response by [Finance Minister] Nicola Willis". "Her recklessness has now cost New Zealanders hundreds of millions of dollars... hundreds of millions of dollars of public investment have been flushed down the drain and New Zealanders have nothing to show for it." Hipkins added that Willis should have never cancelled the contract without figuring out how much that was going to cost, and without figuring out how much the alternative was going to cost. "They still haven't told New Zealanders how much their alternative is going to cost," he said. "We need a reliable inter-island ferry service. One that can take cars and trains and passengers from one island to the other. "It's a vital connection between the two major islands of our country. It is part of the state highway network. It's part of the rail network. "We need to do it properly and get it right." Labour's transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said taxpayers had forked out more than half a billion dollars with still no ferries to show for it. "We need a strong, resilient Cook Strait. What this government has done is they have wasted a whole pile of money on cancelling a botched ferry deal, and at the same time the existing fleet is going to continue to limp along." Utikere said the original plan was to have ferries delivered by 2026, but New Zealanders now have to wait until 2029. The Aratere was due to be retired on Monday. More to come...
