Ferry unions demand Finance Minister resign over Cook Strait debacle

Four unions rep­re­sent­ing mar­itime and rail work­ers have con­demned the Government’s deci­sion to effec­tive­ly can­cel the Cook Strait iRex fer­ry upgrade project, and are demand­ing the res­ig­na­tion of the Min­is­ter of Finance for the deci­sion.

The four unions are the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand rep­re­sent­ing sea­far­ers, the Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union rep­re­sent­ing rail work­ers, the New Zealand Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild rep­re­sent­ing ship’s mas­ters and offi­cers, and the Avi­a­tion and Marine Engi­neers Asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sent­ing marine engi­neers.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says it is not ten­able that such a major deci­sion with mas­sive impli­ca­tions for the econ­o­my should be made in such a ‘fast and loose’ man­ner.

“This is far more than a fis­cal deci­sion – this deci­sion shows poor judge­ment and a total lack of under­stand­ing of the impor­tance of a func­tion­ing Cook Strait con­nec­tion to New Zealand’s sup­ply chain.”

He says the ongo­ing tech­ni­cal issues with Cook Strait fer­ries are a result of end of life ves­sels being used on a noto­ri­ous­ly chal­leng­ing cross­ing and had result­ed in seri­ous inci­dents in the last few years. 

“The can has been kicked down the road for years and the upgrade has to hap­pen now.”

“This Gov­ern­ment cam­paigned on get­ting our trans­port infra­struc­ture sort­ed and their first move is to basi­cal­ly jeop­ar­dize the future of road and rail trans­port between the North and South Island.”

Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Todd Val­ster says the fer­ry upgrade project was an essen­tial part of main­tain­ing a ‘fit for pur­pose’ nation­al trans­port sys­tem ini­ti­at­ed by the pre­vi­ous Labour Gov­ern­ment.

He says the new Government’s deci­sion to dump the project was reck­less and indi­cat­ed an agen­da to run down key parts of our trans­port infra­struc­ture.

“The iRex project would deliv­er fit for pur­pose, mod­ern ves­sels and ter­mi­nals, that would pro­vide reli­a­bil­i­ty, resilience, low emis­sions and a safe ser­vice.”

Mr Val­ster says the iRex project would deliv­er a long term solu­tion for the Cook Strait over decades, which jus­ti­fied the cost of the project.

He says the Min­is­ter of Finance and the Gov­ern­ment had made an irre­spon­si­ble deci­sion that would cost mil­lions to rec­ti­fy by break­ing con­tracts with over­seas sup­pli­ers, and leave the Cook Strait con­nec­tion with third rate, age­ing infra­struc­ture.