Kaitaki sentencing underscores need for new ferries

The sen­tenc­ing of KiwiRail today for a 2023 inci­dent on the Kaita­ki inter­is­land fer­ry high­lights the urgent need for replace­ment fer­ries, says the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand.

KiwiRail was fined $432,500 for a charge under the Health and Safe­ty at Work Act brought by indus­try reg­u­la­tor Mar­itime New Zealand, fol­low­ing loss of engine pow­er on the Inter­is­lander fer­ry Kaita­ki on Sat­ur­day 28 Jan­u­ary 2023. 

Hun­dreds of pas­sen­gers and crew were left adrift on the fer­ry in severe weath­er con­di­tions and a ‘May Day’ call was issued as the fer­ry drift­ed towards the Welling­ton coast, before pow­er was restored.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay says the fail­ure should nev­er have hap­pened. 

“It’s pret­ty clear that this is a fail­ure by KiwiRail to do some basic main­te­nance. They’ve copped that and so they should.

“But you can’t look at this with­out the big­ger pic­ture. This is crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture that is age­ing out and has been under­fund­ed by suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments for years.

“As far as MUNZ is con­cerned the last government’s plan to replace this fleet with the iRex project was already com­ing lat­er than it should have.

“The can­cel­la­tion of the new fer­ry deal by Min­is­ter of Finance Nico­la Willis has put us back to square one at mas­sive expense to the tax­pay­er. It’s gross neg­li­gence.

“The Gov­ern­ment must pro­vide a plan and a time­line for safe, pub­licly owned and rail enabled fer­ries as soon as pos­si­ble.

“If they don’t. it should be them stand­ing in the dock if this kind of fail­ure hap­pens again.”