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OPINION

After Sunday's very underwhelming announcement on supermarkets from Finance Minister Nicola Willis, I was a bit worried that yesterday’s announcement on the future of the interisland ferries would be much the same.

Lately the coalition government has made a bit of a habit of making announcements that mean very little.

And to some extent, that's exactly what we got from Rail Minister Winston Peters yesterday.

Now first; a bit of background.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis cancelled the brand new interisland mega ferries shortly after the election, pointing to the extreme cost blowout. She spent a year working on replacements and late last year we were told she was about to announce her bold new plan.

It turned out Winston Peters was made Minister of Rail and given until the end of March to devise a plan. Yesterday was the end of March and up steps Winston Peters.

And he seems to have done a good job.

Yes, the new ferries will be rail-enabled which KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy said was great news for the public.

I think most of us would agree that rail-enabled fairies is the right way to go.

The two new ferries are also going to be 200 metres long - a bit longer and wider than the current fleet but smaller than the mega fairies that Nicola Willis cancelled.

And all of this sounds great. But there’s one big glaring problem.

We haven’t actually ordered these ferries.

This was Winston Peters confirming what the government wants to buy. It was an announcement of a shopping list, not a contract.

It's an announcement of an announcement.

My biggest problem here is that our existing fleet of three ferries, which have broken down, run aground and lost propellers, have to last us until 2029.

That's four years away at best.

And according to the former chair of the Ferry ministerial advisory group Mark Thompson, that might not be possible. He says that is an ambitious timeframe.

We still don't even know exactly what the ships are going to look like and who's going to build them.

We also don't know how much these replacements are going to cost. And keep in mind we have to pay the contract break fee for the mega ferries.

And there's one other concern I have. What happens if next year there's a change of government and a new government changes the plans again?

Ultimately we need to rely on these ferries lasting until 2029.

Yes, we've had a good summer with no breakdowns. But history tells us there's a lot of water between now and 2029 that these old ferries have to cross.

And these old girls are getting older not younger, and they are certainly not without their issues.

For me this is still a case of wait and see. I can tell you it's definitely not the plan I expected to come out yesterday.

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