Genter Julie Anne; Willis NicolaHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I'd also like to start with a series of questions to the Minister. Thank you for your ministerial statement. Has the Government received any advice that quantifies the risk to New Zealand of not having replacement ferries if current vessels fail?Rt Hon Winston Peters: Point of order. Mr Speaker if you go to Standing Order 365(1)(b) can you tell us how it is that that member is speaking on behalf of that party? She's not the leader and that's the qualification that's required.SPEAKER: No. So if you read a bit further you'll find that in all these matters I think the words are at the Speaker's discretion" and that party leaders notify who they intend to have speaking on behalf of their party. That's a process that got well established in the last Parliament.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Well just when you say "If you read further"—I've read further and I do not find those magic words "at the Speaker's discretion". So I'm asking for the Standing Order to be enforced.Hon Grant Robertson: Speaking to the point of order perhaps I can help the House by reading out Standing Order 365(1): "Following a ministerial statement the leader of each party with six or more members or a member authorised by the leader".Rt Hon Winston Peters: Yeah. Where's the authorisation?SPEAKER: I am assuming—assuming—Rt Hon Winston Peters: You don't assume.SPEAKER: Yes I can. I can do a lot of things and assuming is one of them. And I'm assuming that the Green Party wish to be represented by their transport spokesman as the Labour Party were represented by their infrastructure and finance spokesperson and others will come. I'm not sure on what basis the member was speaking but that's OK—as the leader.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Point of order Mr Speaker. I can assure you of the basis because we have more than six members—and we'll have many more in the future—and because we know what we're talking about.SPEAKER: Righto. OK we didn't want to introduce new debating topics so I'll call Julie Anne Genter.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): I'll just repeat my question which was to the Minister: has the Government received advice that quantifies the risk to New Zealand of not having replacement ferries if the current vessels fail while we're waiting for this replacement process? Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I don't need advice to know that New Zealand needs a reliable safe ferry service between our two islands. Our Government is committed to ensuring that is the case and we are confident that that will be the case.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Notwithstanding that the chair of KiwiRail has mentioned that the choice that the Government has made to completely start over in this process will mean that there'll be considerable delays potentially to the replacement ferries how much of the cost that the Minister has been referring to is related to necessary upgrades to port infrastructure particularly to address seismic risk?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): The member will be aware that there are a number of options for how we proceed in terms of replacement ferries and I'm confident that we can get a timely solution.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Can the Minister let us know—because she has mentioned that only 21 percent of the current cost is related to the vessels themselves—how much of the cost is related to necessary upgrades to poor infrastructure particularly to address seismic risk?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I don't have that figure to hand but I would note that the member herself said on X that the project had become too expensive.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Yes that's true and thank you for referring to my very reasonable comments because I've long been a critic of Government spending in the transport sector inflating too fast and not being good value for money. But I guess the relevant point for the Minister that I'm interested in drilling down for the benefit of the House is whether or not the cost inflation is out of line with other cost inflation we've seen in infrastructure particularly in the building space because of changes made—I believe by a previous National Government—to earthquake standards and our awareness of the risk of seismic risk and whether in fact quadrupling of price is pretty standard certainly for the highways that this Government will be trying to deliver. Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): Well a cost blowout of four times the size of the original project may have been pretty standard under the last Government but it's not going to be pretty standard under this Government. In fact this project was an outlier and the point I would make is this: the cost of the infrastructure that needed to be developed at port and on the land side and the marine side I understand was a lot more expensive because of the size of the boats—ships—that had been committed to. And that is relevant here because the pattern under the previous Government was that they would commission an infrastructure project without first doing the appropriate due diligence to fully understand the design implications and implications of it. Don't take it at my word; read the Auditor-General's report.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Two more quick questions: will energy efficiency and carbon emissions be a consideration in any new vessels that are commissioned given that they do have ongoing implications for the cost of running the vessels?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): Yes it's my understanding that modern ferries are less emissions intensive than the ferries we are currently using.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Will continuity of rail freight services be a consideration in the necessary port-side infrastructure?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): We will continue to want the ferries to support good freight connections between the North and South Island and we continue to support rail as a means for transporting freight around New Zealand."