Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises — New Zealand Railways Corporation

The performance of KiwiRail management has been so poor that it should be fired. This is a company that has spent mega-millions of public money with very little to show for it, and this Government has sat back and twiddled its thumbs while things get worse and worse. The Government has seen to it that the New Zealand Railways Corporation gets far too little resources to improve its network. In Auckland the expansion of the city rail network will be far too slow while the Government instead spends more and more billions of dollars on a motorway expansion programme that cannot solve that region’s transport problems.

In the Hawke’s Bay the mothballed Napier to Gisborne line has not been repaired for the paltry $4 million required for that purpose, despite the Prime Minister’s original statement soon after the slips closing the line occurred that the road would never be enough by itself. The slips that closed the line are one thing, but now the slippage by the Government in failing to repair that line is completely another. That is totally unacceptable not only to New Zealand First but also to the majority of people in that region, and for good reason. Since those slips occurred that closed that line, $4 million—about the same that would be required to repair the line—has been spent on the Gisborne to Napier road, on just a few passing lanes. So the Government can find money for that, but it cannot find money to keep the line open.

But the elephant in the room—or should I say the ship—is the KiwiRail Cook Strait services. Anyone can see that this comedy of errors shows serious mismanagement of this service by an incompetent management and board. We have seen breakdowns and mishaps one after the other in that service, resulting from what is best called a floating lemon, the Aratere. Then, of course, it was lengthened, and as soon as a laden train was put on it, it showed a tendency to flex because the lengthening of that ship was not appropriate for the vessel. Then a series of mishaps followed. Here is a list of just a few of them: the ship bending along the keel and twisting when under load, toilets not working properly, problems with lifeboats, the freight capacity for trucks being reduced, the ship breaking down within a few days of arriving back into service, the engines not being powerful enough to drive the ship through heavy seas because of the extra weight and length, and an infestation of rats. It has had problems with the cargo doors, stabiliser, ballast, and radar, and, of course, with a propeller falling off. And then there are the thousands of litres of fuel that were lost somewhere—a litany of errors, as I have said.

This company simply does not know what it is doing. KiwiRail’s Cook Strait ferry operation is a chapter of errors and of sheer incompetence and dangerous blunders, and the Aratere is now on its way back from Singapore. Let us hope it makes it. What has been the true cost of the ferry? Is it $100 million dollars, $150 million, or $200 million? It is hard to tell. So it is not just a lemon; it is a longer lemon, but not only that, it is a very expensive lemon too. When it gets back, it will still have restrictions on freight and sailing conditions, so it is not just a lemon but a limited lemon as well—all because KiwiRail’s management could not get it right.

Now we understand that the company is seriously thinking about buying the Stena Alegra—another lemon, a cast-off from another country, and not suited to Cook Strait conditions at all. And the price, we understand, is $8 million—a cheap, nasty rust bucket, even more prone to breakdowns than the Aratere. This boat uses 20 times the lubricant of other ferries. Why would that be? We all know that a car that is burning oil has a serious engine problem. This rust bucket is at the end of its useful life.

Report noted.

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