Nicola Willis dodges questions on ferry letter, won’t commit to new ships by 2026

Finance Minister Nicola Willis will not commit to replacing the ageing Interislander fleet by 2026, which is when the now-cancelled mega ferries were due to arrive.

The mega ferry project was left dead in the water in December after overall costs, including new terminals and wharf upgrades, ballooned to almost $3 billion and the new Government refused to fund the blowout.

However, KiwiRail took until February 14 to announce it was terminating the $551 million fixed-price contract with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard to build the ferries.

The Herald revealed today the contract was only terminated following a letter from Willis. The Minister would not provide a summary of the letter, saying the matter was subject to ongoing consideration and was commercially sensitive.

Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills put it to Willis that it appeared KiwiRail had tried to salvage some sort of deal without her knowing.

“Well, we’ve always been clear that we were not going ahead with what was called project iRex which was the really mega, big ferries with the rail on them”, Willis said.

“That was going to be far too expensive in terms of the work that would be required at each of the ports, that actually the portside infrastructure would cost a huge amount more than the ships, so we needed to come up with a better solution that provided better value for taxpayers.”

A ministerial advisory group has been appointed to provide independent advice on the future of the ferry service.

When asked by Mills when people were going to hear “what the hell’s going on”, Willis pointed out the mega ferries weren’t due to arrive and be up and running until 2026 at the earliest.

Willis also said it wasn’t clear the mega ferries would even be able to use the current Interislander route across Cook Strait after Marlborough’s Harbourmaster set limits for the maximum size of new vessels using Tory Channel.

Harbourmaster Jake Oliver has previously confirmed KiwiRail had been in touch about the issue but had never been given confirmation as to whether the new ferries would be allowed to cross.

Labour MP Ginny Andersen, who joined Willis on Newstalk ZB, said the Government needed to guarantee there would be replacement ferries by 2026.

“That’s what we already had in place and by tearing up this contract and starting it from scratch, it’s really concerning not just for tourism but for businesses that rely on that freight,” she said.

“There is currently no plan to fix the current problem and that’s a real concern.”

Willis pushed back and said: “There is a plan we are working to get replacement ships ... and if you think that the big ships were going to be up and running with the port redevelopment having occurred and with the safety certificates issued by 2026, you’re dreaming.”

“Actually, what that project had had was years of delays, of blowouts, of issues with compliance, of problems at the port and that was set to continue. We made, I think, a principled decision to say actually, this project has gone well off course.”

Andersen pressed Willis on exactly when replacement ships would be on the water.

“We’re going to have reliable ferry services continuing into the future,” Willis said.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.