Goldsmith Paul; Tuiono TeanauHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. This is an urgent debate on the grounding of the MV Aratere on 9:56 p.m. on Friday 21 June and the Government's response to the issue. Now the grounding and we've heard a lot of speechifying on a whole range of other topics in relation to this but what we're talking about is the unfortunate grounding of a ship and whether or not some ferries might be coming in a couple of years' time or afterwards is of interest I suppose and the broader question around ferries but not the specifically relevant to what happened on Friday 21 June and the safety of everybody involved. So there were 47 people on board; 39 crew and eight passengers. And obviously the primary reaction to this is relief that (a) the situation didn't happen in a more dangerous spot and that it was resolved in this relatively—that it didn't lead to a more dramatic disaster and heaven forbid any injuries. And so we're relieved that it was a freight-only sailing and that not many members of the public were on board.We did also note the swift action of the emergency services in responding to ensure that people were safe and the actions led to the successful refloating of the ferry on the 22nd. I understand there was no water entering the vessel or oil going into the marine environment. So we were lucky. But obviously the primary issue in relation to this is that our safety infrastructure is working appropriately. And so the absolute primary response of the Government in the broadest sense is that the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Maritime New Zealand both have statutory functions to conduct inquiries and investigations into the circumstances and causes of marine accidents and incidents with a view to avoiding similar occurrences in the future.Both of those agencies the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Maritime New Zealand have confirmed their intention to inquire into or investigate the event in line with their statutory functions and they are expected to take several months to continue. So in New Zealand we mercifully have had very few serious accidents but we've had a few over the years. And each time anything happens there is a thorough inquiry into what happened and lessons are learnt and operators are expected to deal with that.So we recognise the importance of the Cook Strait connectivity.Chlöe Swarbrick: What are you going to do about it?Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Well like I say the proper investigatory agencies are looking into what caused this particular trap and how it's going to be dealt with. And then of course KiwiRail and their board are directly responsible for the safety of those ships.The question then sort of lends itself to the question: Well what's going to happen in terms of the replacement of ageing ferries?" And well of course as has been well canvassed one of the reasons why this Government is having to deal with an horrendous financial and fiscal situation is that the previous Government was out of control in its spending and no more simple example of that was the fact that the replacement of ferries blew out from $700 million to over $3 billion. And it was in relation to the larger size of the ferries the rail enablement and all the work that needed to be done on the two port sites. So we as any responsible Government and every New Zealander would expect the responsible Government to do stopped that because it was unsustainable. And we've gone back and we're getting advice on alternatives. And one of the very simpler alternatives is not to build—not to take on much larger ferries that require different port infrastructure but actually to get ferries that fit in within the current port infrastructure so that we can not have to spend so much money on what is an important event. So we're very focused on making sure that the investigation is done properly firstly. And secondly we've got some decent process in place in order to provide replacements.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): The member's time has expired."