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.”