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Winston Peters: Minister for Rail unveils details of new Cook Strait ferry replacement plan · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talksed be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Winston's ferry plan gets the tick of approval from Cabinet
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  Speaker 2: or two techs actually because we get two new fairies
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  Speaker 2: crossing the Cook Straight by Christmas twenty twenty nine. That
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  Speaker 2: is the promise. They'll have road and rail decks in
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  Speaker 2: capacity for fifteen hundred passengers. They'll be longer than the
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  Speaker 2: current vessels, smaller than the canceled irecks ones, but cheaper.
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  Speaker 2: Minister for Raal Winston peters with me hime, Minister, Hello,
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  Speaker 2: you happy with this?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, sir? Well by Christmas twenty twenty nine you'll have
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  Speaker 3: two brand new inn Island fairies. They'll be going across
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  Speaker 3: the Cook Straight and they will take you, your family,
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  Speaker 3: the caravan, the dog and all the rest across the
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  Speaker 3: Cook Straight, which is what moster is yell do and
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  Speaker 3: a mass majority want.
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  Speaker 2: Will we have in the meantime problems getting across the
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  Speaker 2: Cook Straight? Will the revamp of picked In, Will the
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  Speaker 2: upgrade to Wellington affect the current ferry operation?
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  Speaker 3: Look? I saw the experts who are doing the advice
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  Speaker 3: to Kiraul right now in terms of the existing fairies,
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  Speaker 3: their maintenance, what's required. They gave me a serious overview
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  Speaker 3: today of how much work they've done on it, and
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  Speaker 3: they are very confident that these present utilities are going
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  Speaker 3: to be capable of going well pass twenty twenty nine,
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  Speaker 3: which is the date with the transfer to two brand
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  Speaker 3: new fairies.
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  Speaker 2: So we'll have one hundred percent capacity as it stands
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  Speaker 2: right now, right through until the end of twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: nine when we're expected to get the new ones. Yes, okay,
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  Speaker 2: And what do you make of the reaction today to
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  Speaker 2: some of this? I mean, the Maritime Union has said
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  Speaker 2: that it was a big mistake for Nickolo Wills to
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  Speaker 2: cancel those contracts back in December of twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 2: You don't agree with.
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  Speaker 3: That, Well, look, the problem was that we had ordered
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  Speaker 3: two fairies at four hundred and one million dollars in
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  Speaker 3: May of twenty twenty and it blew out where the
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  Speaker 3: fairies were going to be less than twenty percent of
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  Speaker 3: the costs and the infrastructure was going to cost over
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  Speaker 3: eighty percent, and so it was just impossible when Treasury
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  Speaker 3: was saying this could go past four billion dollars. See
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  Speaker 3: what went wrong? So we went out to save billions
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  Speaker 3: of dollars with this practical, common sense solution.
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  Speaker 2: Was Nicola Willis's solution not practical and common sense because
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  Speaker 2: it didn't include rail It.
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  Speaker 3: Was no Nicola Willis's cancing of the IRX project. It
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  Speaker 3: was totally vindicated by this decision because we'd have bought
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  Speaker 3: those two fairies, built them, not being able to use
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  Speaker 3: them because we didn't have the infrastructure, we'd had to
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  Speaker 3: put them on the international market, and it would have
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  Speaker 3: been a bias market. We'd have been taken for the cleaners.
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  Speaker 3: Because when you've got to get rid of two boats,
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  Speaker 3: you got no options, then down comes the price. We'd
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  Speaker 3: have lost a mass amount of money on that.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, understand that. But her solution was to follow the
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  Speaker 2: advice of this minister or group, was it not, and
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  Speaker 2: they recommended buying two fairies that weren't rail enabled.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the problem with that was that her group just
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  Speaker 3: looked at one option and didn't look at the alternatives.
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  Speaker 3: And the alternatives when we were working on them, in
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  Speaker 3: terms of being rail and wrote enabled so to speak,
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  Speaker 3: were much cheaper, much more enduring, and in line with
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  Speaker 3: the decisions made by there. I say that some wiser
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  Speaker 3: all of politicians going back decades and decades ago.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think does it worry you that the minister
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  Speaker 2: was just going to go along with the Ministerial Advisory
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  Speaker 2: Group and potentially by us two fairies that were more
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  Speaker 2: expensive and not rail enabled.
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  Speaker 3: Hang on, This is a minister who listened to other
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  Speaker 3: cabinet advice and said, Okay, let's suspend what I was
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  Speaker 3: thinking about and let's see what you guys can do.
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  Speaker 3: And we went out and consulted as widely as we
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  Speaker 3: could with all manner of shipping companies, with all manner
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  Speaker 3: of people, with the total industry, with the Porter Marlboro,
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  Speaker 3: with Ceda Port and Willnington and Kerrie Rayl and we
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  Speaker 3: came up with a much better option. So she made
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  Speaker 3: the right decision twice, didn't she?
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  Speaker 2: I suppose she did. Hey, this Benjamin Doyle stuff. Are
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  Speaker 2: you more worked up over the posts themselves or the
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  Speaker 2: fact that the media didn't report on them until you did?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look you've seen over the past any MP that's
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  Speaker 3: got something in my way of correspondence? Or dare I
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  Speaker 3: say phone calls or dare I say posts that have
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  Speaker 3: come under investigation? Those people have been taken to the
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  Speaker 3: cleaners by the media, and here comes someone with all
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  Speaker 3: sorts of posts now being taken down because they are
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  Speaker 3: suspicious as to their content, and not one mainstream media
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  Speaker 3: person was asking them for days and days and days.
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  Speaker 3: But go back further than that. This was all there
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  Speaker 3: before he was chosen to be a replacement candidate in
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  Speaker 3: Parliament and promptly he pulled it down. And now as
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  Speaker 3: to the Green parties, what on earth do you think
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  Speaker 3: this parliament is? Why did you yourself not know this?
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  Speaker 3: In the meantime, he's been screaming out for period blockers
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  Speaker 3: being made available to also to children at the taxpayer's expense,
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  Speaker 3: giving children a sexual prevalence, preference and choices when they're
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  Speaker 3: far too young to make up their minds. Where all
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  Speaker 3: the international evidence says this is so dangerous, and he
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  Speaker 3: pressed on with it. That's the point. I'm asking the
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  Speaker 3: media to go and ask him the questions and ask
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  Speaker 3: the Greens what on earth they think this is about. Now,
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  Speaker 3: here's the point on my post. And there have been
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  Speaker 3: thousands of Rainbow people backing what we're saying and saying
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  Speaker 3: this is just so damning of their own position, which
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  Speaker 3: is legitimate which is not to be challenged, but worst
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  Speaker 3: of all, contaminates what they think they are right. This
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  Speaker 3: is the Shamans that's turned up here.
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  Speaker 2: Whinston Peters, appreciate your time. The Minister for Rail on
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  Speaker 2: the program.
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