Ferry (in)decision demonstrates lack of ministerial talent

New Zealand Government plans to replace aging interisland ferries remain adrift

Source: Kiwirail

One wonders if anyone in the cabinet bothered to speak up as Finance Minister Nicola Willis lost between 500 million and $1 billion dollars of “taxpayer money” by cancelling the iRex ferries, with the additional cost of replacement ferries and upgraded interisland port infrastructure yet to be added to this total. Willis appears to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

The competence of Willis is not the only problem. I believe the ferry (in)decision reveals a more significant weakness in the National/ACT/NZ First government.

The press conference this week revealed that the government is still struggling to answer key questions that arose from the December 2023 decision, such as the cost of alternative ferries and whether trains will be able to drive on and off the ships. Decisions appear to have been shunted away until March, with Nicola Willis desperately claiming, ‘I have discharged my duty to the New Zealand people’, after Willis left the issue on autopilot for nearly a year.

Appointing Winston Peters as Minister of Rail smacks of being a vanity appointment. During the 1996 coalition negotiations, National leader Jim Bolger appointed Peters as ‘Treasurer’ because Bolger knew, deep down, that Peters cares more about the baubles of office than about policy. Peters may talk about the railways built by Prime Minister Julius Vogel in the 19th century, but has little chance of getting anything like Vogel’s rail budget to play with. The cabinet may reject fully rail-capable ferries once again.

It remains to be seen whether setting up another ‘Schedule 4A’ crown company to procure the ferries will just add another layer of bureaucracy at the same time the government is implementing deep cuts across the public sector. A Schedule 4 company structure would also provide a vehicle for the ownership of the ferries to be privatised, though a leaseback deal with Kiwirail.

History shows that once Peters is appointed a senior minister, he is no longer a threat to neoliberal continuance. The timing is also handy, allowing Prime Minister Chris Luxon to stroke Peters’ ego shortly before he loses the deputy Prime Minister role to Act leader David Seymour on 1 April 2025.

In considering the direction of the National/NZ First/ACT government I keep coming back to one question. Who is the ‘Gordon Coates’ figure in this government? Who is able to put the interests of good policy ahead of narrow party interests? Looking at the senior figures in the government, it is hard to identify anyone who actually cares about policy.