Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Todd Valster: Rail and Maritime Transport Union General Secretary on the costs of the previous rail deal, new deal

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Todd Valster: Rail and Maritime Transport Union General Secretary on the costs of the previous rail deal, new deal · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, to the Fairies, and new documents revealed three hundred
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: million dollars was set aside by the government to cover
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: its broken ferry bill contract with Yundai. Even if Hyundai
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: land the new deal to build two smaller ferries, the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: bill will still have to be paid out. Todd Volster
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: is rail the Maritime Transport Union General Secretary and has
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: working up early for us. Good morning to your Todd's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: good mind. Three hundred million is that all?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I think it's undercut. There's a lot more than three
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: hundred million. I think they're playing the under sums there.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: What are they missing out?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, there's three hundred million under the ether's nothing not
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: recognizing the costs that have already been put onto to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: procure these these theories, the two large fairies. So there's
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: there's there's many more millions that have been spent. Okay,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: billion dollars or even more.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, easy to are around those words. But yes, I
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: understand these ships where to cost five hundred and fifty
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: one million dollars and now we've got three hundred million
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to break that. But the pole project would cost three
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: point five billion, possibly even four by Now that's because
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of the wharfside costs. Can you tell me why no
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: one talks about the wharfside cost which is the biggest
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: part of this whole thing, and we'll still have to happen.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I think we still do, just talk about it. Yeah, yeah, no,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: maybe it's been played down, but the ambition by the
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: crow Space was a bit high and it was a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: one hundred year ascid except you know, the existing infrastructure
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: is probably fifty years old or less and needing to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: be replaced, so they probably went a bit too far
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: on that side of things, and there was a lots
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: of debate about where there was going to be in Wellington,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: whether it's going to be close to the railway station
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: or income the existing far fire. So yeah, still talking
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: about it, but yeah it still needs There's tenths on
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: both sides, so they.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Don't need to be Those wolves are on earthquake a
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: fault and they're sixty years old and they're going to
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: need something, So we'll talk about that later. In your opinion,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: did the government rush to cancel the fairies?
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I don't think there was much thought put in
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: it at all, even the way that they canceled the ferries,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and I think it was by text message to high
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and Die before it was announced a couple of hours later.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So the public was totally disrespectful. I think what is
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: good is that at least part of the coalition has
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: gone to career and spoken to with the shipbuilders. The
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister didn't and certainly the Minister of Finance didn't,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: but at once to have all right.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Three months after the deal was canceled, the Ministerial Advisory
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Group appointed by Nikola Willis told her that she should
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: urgently renegotiate the contract. She didn't. Was that a mistake?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Even the Nisterary Advisory Group was sort of geared
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to be to what Nikla calls rail compatible, which is
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: like weird everything as well compatible. You can take a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: piece of fright and put it on a pushbite if
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: you like. But as far as rail enabled, which is
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: what New Zealand needs, that's that's that's the main thing
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I was going.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: To ask you. Are you a roll on roll off guy,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a rail enabled guy, or a rail competible guy.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Rail compatible is ridiculous. Rail enabled is what New Zealand needs.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: It's completely inefficient to taking freight off wagons and putting
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: it onto the little trucks and and doing the same
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: at the other end. It's it's it's uh yeah, all right,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it's not even safe really, Todd.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I thank you for your time today, Todd Volster from
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the Maritime Transport Union.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 3:45
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• 3:48
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