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Heather du Plessis-Allan: The ferry "announcement" is embarrassing

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan ,
Publish Date
Thu, 12 Dec 2024, 9:48am
Photo / Mark Mitchell
Photo / Mark Mitchell

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The ferry "announcement" is embarrassing

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan ,
Publish Date
Thu, 12 Dec 2024, 9:48am

I think we can all have a guess at why the Government announced the ferry decision two weeks before Christmas. 

Because this is embarrassing, isn鈥檛 it? 

What have they been doing for the last year? 

How do you go a year after cancelling the mega ferries and still have nothing to show for it? 

No deal. No ferries. No price tag. 

Not even any detail on how much it's costing to break the deal on the mega ferries. 

All we鈥檝e got is rumours and if those rumours are right, then we are going to spend more than twice what those two mega ferries were going to cost to buy two smaller ferries. 

Those mega ferries were $550m. The medium sized ferries will apparently cost $900m, plus a $300m break fee for the mega ferries. 

That鈥檚 $1.2b. 

We鈥檇 have been better off keeping the big boys, onselling them and using the money to buy the little ones. 

And don鈥檛 expect anything anytime soon. It won't be until the second half of next year before we actually know what鈥檚 happening. 

Time is of the essence because our existing ferries are running on hopes and prayers and masking tape. 

We鈥檝e had one floating without power in the Cook Strait, another run aground on a sandy beach and various other mishaps. 

Now, I don鈥檛 think the mega ferries were the solution. 

But I鈥檓 starting to feel like this deal, whatever it is, could be even worse. I鈥檓 starting to think this might make the mega ferries look like value for money. 

And that's not a great outcome from National and Nicola Willis, who鈥檝e told us they鈥檙e great at striking deals and managing money. 

Because this does not look like that at all. 

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