Kaiarahi failure proves urgent need to retain emergency tug

The union rep­re­sent­ing Kiwi sea­far­ers says the tech­ni­cal fail­ure of the Inter­is­lander fer­ry Kaiarahi in the Cook Strait on Fri­day night is a “red flag” that the Gov­ern­ment can­not ignore, prov­ing the need to keep an emer­gency ocean-going tug on stand­by.

The Kaiarahi was forced to aban­don its voy­age and turn back to Welling­ton on Fri­day 12 Decem­ber after expe­ri­enc­ing steer­ing issues in the Strait.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay says the inci­dent demon­strates exact­ly why the Union is demand­ing the reten­tion of the emer­gency response ves­sel MMA Vision.

“We are cur­rent­ly rely­ing on two aging fer­ries to bridge the gap until 2029. The Kaiarahi turn­ing back due to tech­ni­cal fail­ure is the lat­est warn­ing sign, yet Trans­port Min­is­ter Chris Bish­op is mov­ing to axe the MMA Vision con­tract months ahead of sched­ule.

“It is dis­turb­ing the Gov­ern­ment is plan­ning to remove our mar­itime safe­ty net at the pre­cise moment our crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture is show­ing its vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Min­is­ter Bishop’s deci­sion to ter­mi­nate the MMA Vision con­tract ear­ly is gam­bling with people’s lives and our mar­itime envi­ron­ment.”

Mr Find­lay says the MMA Vision has already proven its val­ue to New Zealand’s mar­itime safe­ty.

“In Sep­tem­ber this year, the MMA Vision suc­cess­ful­ly towed the chem­i­cal tanker Gold­en Mind to safe­ty after it lost steer­ing off Rakiura/Stewart Island. It was also essen­tial in pulling the Man­a­hau barge off a West­port beach in 2024. If the MMA Vision had not been avail­able, per­haps the Gov­ern­ment can explain what the alter­na­tive plan was for those ves­sels.”

The Union notes that the cur­rent fragili­ty of the Cook Strait con­nec­tion is a direct result of the can­cel­la­tion of the iReX project.

“Finance Min­is­ter Nico­la Willis’s deci­sion to can­cel the iReX deal in late 2023 has put the arrival of replace­ment fer­ries years behind sched­ule,” Mr Find­lay says.

“We have already seen the Kaita­ki lose pow­er with near­ly 900 peo­ple on board and the Strait Ship­ping fer­ry Con­nemara drift in the Strait due to fuel issues.

“The Gov­ern­ment cre­at­ed this delay in fleet replace­ment. They have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to put ade­quate safe­ty mea­sures in place to pro­tect the pub­lic and the sup­ply chain while we wait for the new fer­ries. Remov­ing the only ves­sel capa­ble of an open-ocean res­cue in these con­di­tions is irre­spon­si­ble and neg­li­gent.”