Hilda.
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald.
It's been revealed that the.
Government considered using private company Blue Bridge to replace the current inter islander fleet. It's just the latest in the saga that is the Cook Straight Ferries after years of negotiations, debate.
And an axed contract.
But it's hardly the first time we've had a major transport project faced delays and changes. All forms of transporter eyeing big investments. But how long before we actually get some movement? Today on the Front Page, News Talk z B political reporter Azaria Howell is with us to dig into the politics behind the country's transport networks. So Azaria reminds of the fairies saga.
Where are we at with it?
Yeah, So this is a long standing issue. This has been going on for quite some time and it's likely to go on for quite some time, meaning essentially through till about the end of twenty twenty nine. That's when we're going to see two new fairies be delivered. That's what the new government is promising now. Documents from Treasury show that the first fairy is proposed to come in around February twenty twenty nine. The second around October twenty
twenty nine. Minister for Rail Winston Peters. He's recently been crowned that new title. He has previously said we will get new fairies before Christmas twenty twenty nine, so he essentially took over responsibility of those fairies relatively recently. It was a sort of a new portfolio for him that was coming back, and it was essentially the previous government
had contracted to buy new megafairies. That project had to be canceled due to numerous cost blowouts and essentially a lot of concerns about the feasibility of a project like that. There was also a few concerns about the port side infrastructure cost as well. Specifically, so if we're getting bigger ships, we need to sort of upgrade the places that they're going to. So there was a big price tag with that and the new government came in they were not happy.
I mean, they've been known as a government that has been sort of trimming spending in certain areas to kind of cut back and invest in what they call the frontline and frontline services, and perhaps that's what we've seen in terms of this as well.
Now, I believe that you've seen some documents around the ideas floated about how to handle the cook Straight situation.
What kind of ideas were thrown into the mix. Yeah, so there's a lot of different options. It's worth saying the government went to a market process for I think about three and a half weeks. It kind of sounded out the ideas of the market so shipbrokers and people
in that maritime sector as to what's next. And one of the really interesting ones something that stood out to me was the government considered contracting with Blue Bridge, which, as you'll know, it's a private cook Straight ferry company that essentially competes sort of with the inter Islander, which is run by state owned enterprise Kiwi rou So the government considered doing that essentially because the inter Islander fleet is getting older. There there have been some very public
issues with those that you'll be aware of. Specifically, one of the ships has lost power, another one running aground. Major issues there, so that they're wanting to upgrade that infrastructure.
That how they'll actually go about doing that, it's not one hundred percent certain, but they've kind of ticked it down now to a shortlist of six shipbrokers and they'll be looking at whether or not they can deliver value for money, whether or not it will come in on time, that Christmas twenty twenty nine date being essentially the final deadline,
or the preferred final deadline of the government there. It's worth noting that they did not go with the blue Bridge options, so it was more just an idea that was being floated around. But it is interesting in the Labor Party has thrown in quite a bit of criticism on that as well, suggesting it it kind of makes up for what could be privatization of that public cook straight faery situation there, so there's been a little bit
of criticism about looking at that. There was also ideas of a different commercial company to come in to compete with blue Bridge. Treasury documents that I've seen say it quote could be worth further consideration, but essentially they couldn't do it because they had to get this business case
in by March twenty twenty five. And at the end of March Winston Peters, who as I have said, as the Minister for Rail, made this big announcement saying Christmas twenty twenty nine, we will have these fairies in place.
Right, So you said that they're negotiating or checking out at least six builders or p of these fairies.
I mean, where do they hail from?
Yeah, so there's been there's been previous confirmation from the Minister's Office of expressions of interest from South Korea and Finland, the former being really the fascinating one there. South Korea was going to be where the shipyard was that was going to build the original Mega ferries.
The Irex contract.
Yes, that's the one. So the Mega Fairies, the one that's been seen as really expensive by this government was going to be contracted to South Korea. So it is interesting that they're looking at that now. It's not one hundred percent clear if that means that it's the same company. I believe it was Hyundai. It's not one hundred percent clear if that is who the South Korean shipyard is. So I suppose there's a bit a bit that we'll
have to wait and see for that one. Yeah, Treasury underwent a market process for three and a half weeks to kind of get alternative ideas for what that ferry service could look like. Now this Treasury report as well, it's confirmed that Treasury mat with fifteen parties in terms of the maritime sector and got twenty five written submissions from people all around the sector in terms of infrastructure, maritime and things like that.
And the latest One News variant pole we asked do you think the government made the right or wrong decision to cancel the replacement cook straight fairies? Twenty six percent say it was the right decision. Well, fifty one percent say it was the wrong decision. The rest didn't know.
Well, I think that the poll asks the wrong question because the government is replacing the fairies. If you had asked New Zealanders should we replace the feries in the way that is the best value for money, I think you'll find most would say yes.
Moving on to Budget twenty twenty five, it's saw some big commitments when it comes to transport.
Hey, what were some of the highlights for you?
Yeah, So Budget twenty twenty five has been labeled as the growth budget. Now this is a really big one. That's as the government as putting on a greater focus on economic growth and boosting the economy, lifting productivity and things like that. So there is quite a bit of investment there in terms of repairing local roads that have been damaged by the likes of storms as well. There's been investment in railways in the Wellington areas in Auckland
as well. Obviously that comes as there's a lot of chatter as there always has been about City rail Link, which is a very interesting one and I suppose transport is a really big key priority area in terms of in terms of that government budget. I mean we're seeing millions of dollars there, we're seeing big commitment. Obviously it comes after like the Roads of National Significance project and things like that, so there is quite a bit going
on it. It also comes with a couple of government policies in that transport space that have created quite a bit of interest. So there's been this idea of raising speed limits to get people to and from work quicker and what the government says will speed up productivity. So it's important to note that that has been another big key part of the transport policy.
Now it's been a few months since Chris Bishop took over the role of Transport Minister. Has there been a change in tone with him in charge compared to Simeon Brown. Yes.
I think the interesting thing with that is when Simon Brown took over as Minister of Health from Shane Aderti, and he put quite a bit of changes in that sort of health space, putting in a commissioner in health as well. Now, transport I feel like has been a bit less of a maybe a hot topic or an urgent topic as much as health. So I feel like the transition from Simeon Brown to Chris Bishop has kind of seen more focus towards Brown as Health Minister rather
than Bishop as Transport minister. But Bishop has always been known as a big transport guy. He's been the MP for the electorate in Lower Hut for quite some time on and off. I believe he lost that seat with the Labor wave and then won it back. He's been speaking about the likes of the Meling Interchange in rail infrastructure in his electorate in the Hut Valley for quite some time. So yeah, it's been interesting to see him
take over that role. But I feel like there has been quite a bit more focus on how is Simeon Brown doing as Health minister versus how is Chris Bishop doing in that transport space. There's been quite a bit of interesting commentary in Chris Bishop's role with raising the speed limits that is kind of taking place now. They're changing the street signs, they're sort of digging them up and making it go from one hundred two one hundred
and ten. Announcing these things as well. So that's been kind of the big thing recently for Minister Bishop and I'm sure there's more to come in terms of the transport space.
Is the tone from this government pretty much still roads, roads, roads and more roads because Winston Peters did get some major wins for rail in the budget, right.
Yeah, So as mentioned before, Winston Peters the Minister for Rail, that's that's really been something he's been trying to push for. It's it's been the case in that ferry space and it's been the case outside of the ferries as well.
So Winston Peter's before the budget and you may have actually you may be familiar with this because this was an announcement in Wellington in which he made an announcement at the Wellington train station and got a bit of a heckle back and forth from hime Omber of the public.
I think I may have seen something about that.
So ship bollocks load of pollismo, like well, it's gone up in a mini Suntie you.
Look like like Bollock's mate Sunjoint even.
Donald that you're a topd you in that both.
Yes, so so, so that was the announcement. But in terms of the numbers was four hundred and sixty four million dollar capital, one hundred and forty one million dollar operating allowance for rail maintenance that was in Auckland and Wellington, so those metro areas, those ceties for commuters and for
freight as well. So it was a major announcement. But I think that day may have been overshadowed by Winston Peter's telling someone to nap off and him saying things that he said that probably can't be repeated.
So that was probably for the best day, definitely.
So Chris Bishop actually spoke to the Front Page late last year about using tolls as an additional mechanism.
To help pay for roads.
We're looking at using tolls as an additional mechanism to help pay for the roads because they provide the revenue stream to help the financing of some of these roads, and so we made a commitment to do that as a coalition government. And many of the Islanders will be familiar with toll roads overseas. We've got toile roads in Zealand right now. I've got the Northern Gateway north of Auckland,
got top of toll roads around Toronto. They had plenty, so they are they do it the New Zealand right now, we're just saying we want to make more use of them.
Has any further work been done around introducing more toll roads.
Chris Bishop has said tolling concessions could deliver roads sooner, So that is a big sort of key piece and it kind of highlights where things are at the government does want to get infrastructure delivered relatively quickly and it has been looking at the idea. It's also Chris Bishop's also been looking overseas in terms of places that have toll roads and further concessions to see how it's working.
I believe he traveled to Australia looking at toll roads there and just seeing how that actual financing and the funding is working. And Chris Bishop says the benefits of that for Sydney motorists have been huge. So it's been slashing travel times, which, as we've mentioned with the speed limits, has been a big focus of this government. So it's not one hundred percent certain we will put toll roads in this, I suppose, but they've they've been looking at
what might be a next option going forward. So they've been looking at roads that are currently have have tolls on them and might go up, and then roads that are due to open the much awaited outucky to north of Levin as locals call it O two NL, things like that, they are looking at it and as they say,
they say tolling concessions could deliver infrastructure sooner. So I feel like they could be trying to sell the idea to members of the public that they're going to say, you know, you might have to pay a little bit extra, you'll get this flash new road rolled out, maybe even years before it was meant to. So yeah, it could be a could be want to keep an eye on.
I mean, when he announced that he was going over to Sydney and having a chat with those guys. I mean, my best friend used to live in Sydney and the tolling situations in Sydney is actually insane. So it's all run privately by private companies. Each car has a little thing in their car, so it doesn't get your red jo it sees this little thing in your car. I was there in his car taking photos of it. I
was that fascinated. But they have to navigate different routes to work every day if you live in a specific area, because you could people try and avoid them. People try and avoid them because you could from home to work depending on where you live. In Sydney, for example, you could be running through three toll roads on the way to work three backs. So some people are actually spending so much money, especially in Sydney at least, I think they've put in a cap because it was getting so bad.
People were spending like hundreds of dollars a week. It was insane.
Yeah, well that's that's like definitely interesting. And I wonder when the minister was in Australia if that kind of issue was brought up. Hey, don't go too far with it, you know, you might need to put on some restrictions and some limits. Yeah, that's that's really interesting.
Well.
He also wrote a piece in The Herald that we need more transit oriented development, with cities such as Auckland seeing development clustered around mass transit. Given he is Infrastructure and Housing Minister, is he basically in charge of sorting out all areas of our lives now well I wouldn't say all areas.
We did have that health chat before, but definitely quite a lot going on there in terms of the housing space and how it works with infrastructure. Chris Bishop has been a big fan of zoning, of sort of upscaling developments and things like that that's been going on in Wellington and he has been a big fan of it,
notably on x which used to be called Twitter. Chris Bishop often comes to fight for housing developments and things like that that are taking place that some residents might oppose, essentially saying we need housing growth, we need to support more infrastructure, more housing, sustainability, sustainable developments and things like that. So it has been it has been quite a big
thing that he's been supporting. I also know city councils are coming up with their own zoning plans and they're sort of working with and having conversations about how that works. I know Wellington had to sort that I want to say last year, maybe late the year before. So there are lots of questions in terms of how much can you upzone by a train station and things like that.
There are questions that need to be answered, but it does seem like we could be in for more zoning, bigger housing developments and things like that.
Thanks for joining us, Azariah.
Thanks so much, it's been great.
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also our sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in on Monday for another look behind the headlines.