Editorial: New Zealand’s infrastructure issues caused by lack of long-term thinking

The Interislander ferry Aratere was successfully refloated. Photo / Tim Cuff

EDITORIAL

The last few days have put New Zealand’s decaying infrastructure into the spotlight.

A pylon collapse in Northland left nearly 100,000 people without electricity for a day.

The loss of power meant water supplies were cut and people around the region were asked to conserve how much they were using. There were reports of residents stocking up on bottled water at supermarkets.

The transmission tower collapse at Glorit, Auckland, about 45km west of Warkworth, happened at the same time another circuit connecting Northland to the grid was down for maintenance.

The downed pylon near Kaipara. Photo / Michael Craig

“[This] highlights how fragile the infrastructure in Northland is,” Northland MP Grant McCallum said. He said this was “the last thing [Northlanders] needed”.

Mere hours later, the Interislander ferry Aratere ran aground near Picton, leaving passengers stranded and sparking an hours-long operation to refloat the vessel.

The ferry incident, in particular, highlights what prioritising short-term savings rather than making long-term investments can do.

Forty-seven people spent the night aboard the stranded vessel, and while no one got hurt this time, the lack of injuries (or worse) should not be taken as a given.

The Maritime Union said images of the ferry were “a shocking conclusion to years of warnings” about the ageing ferry fleet.

“The Interislander ferries are at end of life, and there have been repeated incidents, such as the loss of power on the Kaitaki last year,” national secretary Carl Findlay said.

New Zealand has to have modern, acceptable Cook Strait ferries. Findlay said the Government had made an error cancelling the iRex project, which not only threatened the transport network but the safety and wellbeing of crew and passengers.

The Interislander ferry Aratere ran aground just out of Picton on Friday night.

“If this incident does not shake the Government out of its complacency about the need for investment in new vessels and infrastructure, what will it take?”

While the vessel has been refloated, the consequences of the incident will continue to be felt, as it will have an impact on the country’s transport network. The Aratere is the only rail-capable ferry on the Cook Strait.

Last week, the Herald reported that annual maintenance costs to keep the ferries running could almost double to $65 million by next year, and keeping the ferries afloat will be an “ongoing battle”.

In December last year, the Government axed the billion-dollar infrastructure project which included new ferries, citing a cost blowout.

A $551m fixed-price contract to build the new ferries was signed with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in 2021.

Before Christmas, KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy suggested the deal could be rescued and the ships could still be built and then sold instead.

Both the Transpower pylon issue in Northland and the Aratere incident are two examples that illustrate what decades of under-investment will lead to.

For too long we’ve been a nation of quick fixes, of “she’ll be right” and now she’s very much not right.