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Andrew Dickens: Is the new ferry deal really better in the long run? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Winston's great rail solution is now revealed, well some of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: it anyway. It seems just like Kiwi Rail's I Rex
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: but cheaper. The boats are still big, bigger than we've
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: got right now, but smaller than the ones that were
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: ordered before. They are rail enabled, but the port side
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: infrastructure in the work there is a lot more reasonable
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and that's always been the thing. The original boats were
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: actually a good deal, but the kicker always came port side.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Kiwi Rail was under the belief, in fact, this is
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: what they were told back in the day by the government,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: including Winston Peters, that this project had to be future proofed.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: This had to be a fifty to one hundred year thing.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: This was something that had to last, which is a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: type of thinking that New Zealand doesn't too often. So
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the ferrari in this whole deal was not the boats,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: it was the ports. Now, Winston says, Picton needs a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: big revent that's going to cost but the earthquake pro
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and Wellington Port just needs a touch up. Thought by
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the way, that the new fairies will have less capacity
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: in an ideal world. All of this is not ideal,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: but it is, As Winston says, pragmatic. Now. I know
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: people involved with the original Irex deal on the on
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the government side, and when this first happened, I talked
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to them and they said that Kiwi Raw should not
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: come to their government expecting an open checkbook. They were
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: supporters of rail and all that sort of thing, but
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you just can't come thinking you can just fleece billions
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: out of the government. Decide that, and he was right.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: The original Irex deal had some good parts to it,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and it is the one that we should have aspired to.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: But as the government keeps telling us, now is not
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the right time for aspirational long term planning. We just
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: can't afford it. But if not now, when will we
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: do anything right first time? So this deal looks like
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a saving short term, but the question will always be
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: for another generation will we end up paying more? Long term?
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: The upshot is that we do have fairies coming by
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty nine, and that's when our current feryes have
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: ended their lives, so the timing is tight. The new
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: fairies are far less likely to think than the ones
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: we already have. And you know that's about it. In
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: this story, We're right back to where we were thirty
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: years ago. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio