You could hear the disappointment oozing out of the Maritime Union Spokesperson yesterday as we found out the break fee for the Interislander ferries would be around 300 million.   

The ferries only cost 551 million at 60 per cent of the cost of the ferries.  

All up 1 billion dollars has been spent on nothing at all.  

It’s making Labour’s light rail fiasco look trivial. 

The Union guy called the situation Nicola Willis’ mistake. And it is.  

She’d be hoping to be remembered as the Saviour of the economy, but she will never escape the billion-dollar boat botch up.  

A botch up she jumped into just to strike a blow against Labour and KiwiRail  

As Winston Peters rushes to patch things up we seem to forget what the real cost of the project is. 

It’s the wharves and more particularly the Wellington wharves  

They need to be renovated.  

They need to be earthquake strengthened.  

We need to decide if they need rail infrastructure so we can roll a train on a ship.  

We need to decide the capacity of the terminals.  

These are questions that never make the public discussion.

As we wait for Winston’s grand answer to a 3-billion-dollar question, I hope that he’ll cover those issues as much as the floating stock.

You could hear the disappointment oozing out of the Maritime Union Spokesperson yesterday as we found out the break fee for the Interislander ferries would be around 300 million. &nbsp;&nbsp;
The ferries only cost 551 million at 60 per cent of the cost of the ferries. &nbsp;
All up 1 billion dollars has been spent on nothing at all. &nbsp;
It’s making Labour’s light rail fiasco look trivial.&nbsp;
The Union guy called the situation Nicola Willis’ mistake. And it is. &nbsp;
She’d be hoping to be remembered as the Saviour of the economy, but she will never escape the billion-dollar boat botch up. &nbsp;
A botch up she jumped into just to strike a blow against Labour and KiwiRail &nbsp;
As Winston Peters rushes to patch things up we seem to forget what the real cost of the project is.&nbsp;
It’s the wharves and more particularly the Wellington wharves &nbsp;
They need to be renovated. &nbsp;
They need to be earthquake strengthened. &nbsp;
We need to decide if they need rail infrastructure so we can roll a train on a ship. &nbsp;
We need to decide the capacity of the terminals. &nbsp;
These are questions that never make the public discussion.
As we wait for Winston’s grand answer to a 3-billion-dollar question, I hope that he’ll cover those issues as much as the floating stock.

A fresh and intelligent start to your day - catch the very latest international and domestic news developments, sport, entertainment and business on Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, on Newstalk ZB.

A fresh and intelligent start to your day - catch the very latest international and domestic news developments, sport, entertainment and business on Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, on Newstalk ZB.

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Andrew Dickens: We're still waiting for answers on the ferries

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/96884be9-2763-4f8d-861d-b296011bd87f/transcript