Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Victor Billot: Maritime Union spokesperson on the ballooning costs of maintaining the Interislander ferries

Transcript

Victor Billot: Maritime Union spokesperson on the ballooning costs of maintaining the Interislander ferries · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Then we've got bad news, more bad news around maintaining
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: stuff that's old. So the fairies are back in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: news this morning. Maintenance cost Qui Ray will tell us
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for these three Into Islanders could blow out to sixty
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: five million dollars by next year. Victor Billow is with
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Maritime Union, he's with us, Victim Morning, Good Morning light.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Sixty five million versus three billion? What would you do?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd look at what New Zealand needs, and we
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: feel that New Zealand needs a functioning, fits for purpose
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: ferries on the cock Strait, and I think that's the
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: overall picture, so that we're kind of in a sense,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: it's almost throwing good money after bed because you're just
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: maintaining a fairies that are nearing the end of life anyway,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: so they're not a long term option even with the maintenance.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: How naked are they well, I mean, I think you
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: know they're sailing, But the.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Reality is if you've got a ship of that age
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and they're all coming up to thirty years old more,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: then it's going to have issues, especially on a tough
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: piece of water like the cook Straight. So I think
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: we're just going to probably see more maintenance issues and
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: as we've seen over the last couple of years, there
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: have been actually some incidents where the faery lost power
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and the straight and that's not something we want to
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: be seeing happening again.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: No, it does not. Do you have any sympathy for
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the government in the sense that part of it? I mean,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: what's your view of Kiwi Rail in the sense that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the part of the big blowout was not just the ships,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: it was the land side operation there and that got
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: expensive and then the whole thing became a cluster and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: then Nicola Willas turns out and works out we've got
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: no money. Do you have any sympathy for any of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that or not? Really?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's fair enough that the government wants to
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on the cost of these projects. I
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: don't think anyone objects to that. It's the issue is,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: as you've pointed out, the fairies were actually the cost
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: issue was more the land based terminals. But the problem
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: is is you can cancel things, but we're still that
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: might be the financially the best course of action on
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the short term, but the problem is is we've still
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: got the out of date connection and I think that
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: it's this is an infrastructure government. They say they've put
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a big, big focus on, you know, getting things done,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: and they certainly invest a lot in motorways and we
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: see the Cook Straight crossing. I mean, that's just an
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: extension of the statehome one. Really, if you don't have that,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: then the whole New Zealand transport system starts to look
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: a bit sketchy.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: You make a very good point if if it was
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: just the fairies, the fairies alone, could it have been
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a done deal and it was just the landside that
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: got a bit complicated and we could have got around that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, And I think that's you know, that's a fair comment.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: But the question is is that where do we go
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: to from here? And we feel that there has to be,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: you know, has to be revisiting of the project at
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: some point, and because it's you know, as we've seen
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: with these ongoing costs of just trying to keep things
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: up and running and patch things up. To be honest,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: it's it's not really a good look for New Zealand,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and certainly down to the South Island where I'm at
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: at the moment, it's people very feel very strongly that
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the Cook Island can Cook Straight connection has to be maintained.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more. Victor appreciated very much. Victor Bill, who's
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: with the Maritime Union New Zealand. He makes for more
• 3:26
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• 3:30
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• 3:32
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