Utikere TangiURGENT DEBATESGrounding of Aratere Ferry—Government ResponseTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Mr Speaker I so move That the House take note of an urgent item.We all know that the InterIslander known as the Aratere ran aground just out of Picton on Friday evening with 47 people aboard.SPEAKER: Can I just interrupt the member please those who are leaving the House do so quietly and without conversation on the way through. The member's time will start again.TANGI UTIKERE: Thank you Mr Speaker. The InterIslander that we all know as the Aratere ran aground just out of Picton on Friday evening with 47 people aboard and that was a very distressing sight for all of us to see and to take note of what had occurred over the coming hours. The primary focus of course at that time was on the safety and on the wellbeing of everyone who was on board. I want to acknowledge the efforts that were made to ensure that those who were on board were safe throughout the incident—particularly those who were seen as the first responders the Maritime Union of New Zealand and other local MPs including my colleague Rachel Boyack who was there as well. There will be no doubt many lines of inquiry into what went wrong and they will work through their processes for sure.But what I can say is that I'm sure all members of this House will know that it is extremely fortunate that we are not here this afternoon referring to an incident that had an outcome that would be much more devastating much more dire because it could have. If that vessel had made its way out of the location where it was into the Tory Channel or indeed into the Cook Strait proper the outcome could have been one of devastation. Those are notorious water bodies and everyone knows that. It is only luck that this breakdown was not more serious. It ran aground in relatively safe calm waters. As we know the Cook Strait ferries are massive machines. They are huge vessels often actually carrying hundreds of passengers and people and they travel that expense nature of water with swells and winds and a malfunction in the wrong place could be nothing short of fatal.This latest incident only further enforces the need for a reliable and sustainable Cook Strait ferry option but also ferries that are built to last. The current Government-owned InterIslander ferries that are owned by the State-owned enterprise KiwiRail are either at or past the end of their lives. They are limping along and the cost of keeping them in a seaworthy state is large and that continues by the day.I think if there was a further disaster you wouldn't need much more of an inquiry to determine perhaps what went wrong and Government Ministers need to take responsibility in this space. They are the ones who run KiwiRail in terms of setting the priorities and providing the financial envelope for them to function and they need to make sure that they are taking responsibility for this.There were last week questions in the Transport and Infrastructure Committee that were put to Simeon Brown as the Minister of Transport around the nature of the ferry fleet. My colleague Arena Williams and I put very squarely to Minister Brown these questions. Now this grounding came the very day after those questions were put to the Government to respond. Minister Brown pushed back on concerns that we raised relating to the need for an immediate replacement and that costs would actually continue to grow beyond the $551 million that the former Government was able to lock in as a suitable replacement. Not only that but also the increasing nature of maintenance costs that some have established could be in the region of $65 million a year from next year. The Minister did not believe that there was a lot of substance to that and just after 24 hours after those questions we have this unfortunate situation where we still have no options in terms of what the replacement might look like moving forward.But of course National have a habit of doing this. They have a habit of effectively switching out the lights and keeping people in the dark and they simply need to front up to the communities of interest all around Aotearoa New Zealand to give certainty around what the future ferry options look like for the Cook Strait. And we do not have time to continue to dilly dally around and to wait for them to actually get their ducks in a row and to share with the community and to share with this House what their options will be. Nicola Willis Simeon Brown and Paul Goldsmith have placed us in this exact uncertainty that we find ourselves in.The solution to all of this was the ferries related to iRex a brand-new set of ferries that were being built—actually were starting to be constructed by the Korean Hyundai Mipo dockyard back in 2021 when this was commissioned. They were to be delivered in February 2026 to avoid the business summer season. Now the finance Minister at the end of last year indicated that she would simply cancel the contract. And she has been dragging her heels for the last six months while this Government has tried to sort themselves out about what the replacement option will be. And one I will say is if the Government can prioritise nearly $3 billion in tax cuts for landlords they can prioritise a resilient safe and reliable ferry service between the North and South Islands.We are being seen as the laughing stock in maritime circles not just here in New Zealand but all around the world. And all one needs to do is to look at the imagery and the photos of that 24-hour period to indicate why it is that New Zealand is seen as the laughing stock where we are not taking any action in this particular space. And what is really important is that the Government seems to like to talk about cost overruns and blowouts and all of these sorts of things. The situation is this: what occurred on Friday evening was in the context of having no plan B—no plan B. We are still waiting to hear what their plan is going to be.Glen Bennett: What's the plan Simmy? Plan C.TANGI UTIKERE: So what then did—plan C. Actually I think Kiwis wouldn't mind plan D at this rate. I know that Nicola Willis says she does not want to have a Ferrari. OK. She said she prefers a Toyota Corolla. All right. I think people at this stage would settle for a Mini. They would settle for a Suzuki Swift. They would settle for a replacement that is going to meet the needs of communities to connect the two islands of Aotearoa New Zealand.Prior to the election there had been a lot of work that was going on in this space. There had been work with KiwiRail on a more suitable and sustainable solution. That was then over to the Government to pick up that conversation and to pull together a plan. What they have done is they have made cancellation as the priority although we actually heard in question time today that cancellation may actually not have been actioned. We we hear repudiation is where things are at at the moment. The Government have said that actually it is cancelled but I don't know. I'm none the wiser as to whether or not the contract has actually been cancelled and it's over to the Government to share with us whether that is the case or not.We also hear that it is possible that the reputation of New Zealand in being able to secure future contracts in terms of ship builds could be compromised. It could be. I don't know but it could be. All we need to do is think about that. When you are engaging with a partner as a form of business and someone wants to withdraw from a transaction that has been locked in back in 2021 then surely there must be some reputational risk to New Zealand as a result of that. But this is also a financial envelope that just for the ferry build itself is continuing to grow—the lock-in of $551 million for the ferry build itself. We don't know the full wind-down costs of that particular exercise. It could be $200 million; it could be 300 million. We don't know what the actual break penalty clause is as a result of cancelling these two ferries. It could be $100 million; it could be $200 million. That is on top of the wind-down costs. And then of course we have the shipyards that may still very well be building these ships all the way through to completion because they started the build when the Government virtually signalled that they were going to cancel the build. And then if they sell them then there is an opportunity that the cost would actually be over that three-year period significantly higher. So possibly three to four times higher as a build. So already the financial cost that is being drawn as a relation to this is probably much significantly higher than the $551 million just for the build itself because the ferries of course were just a small component of that.It is unfortunate that there is no certainty for New Zealanders and for Kiwis around what a resilient service will look like between the North and South Islands. We continue to wait while this Government drags its heels. I thought actually maybe yesterday that we would have heard something the Cabinet had come together and maybe had a chat and may have had a chance to actually think—Hon Peeni Henare: Where's the urgency?TANGI UTIKERE: You know what where is the urgency? Well there does not seem to be urgency from this Government in terms of providing a safe secure resilient and sustainable connection for the future. We cannot wait to 2029 as Nicola Willis has said. She seems to think that it's all right; it's only a few years. Well a few years are a few years far too late. We had a plan. We were prepared to deliver a safe reliable and sustainable option. This is a Government that is not prepared to do that. And despite the activities and actions of the last week or so they continue to be no further down the road.