Kiwirail Ferries
There’s some good news to come out of this PR loving government. If there’s one thing good about them, it’s that they are politically cashed up and comms savvy - and therefore want to please on things that get NZ’s attention.
After the stalemate between National and NZ First over the Cook Strait ferries - with NZ First wanting rail and National not - it appears the winds are blowing in Winston Peter’s favour.
Those of you who have been reading here might remember the cancelled i-Rex ferries had 40 rail wagons, 3000 lane metres for vehicles, and could accomodate 1800 passengers - based on the projected volume increases across the Cook Strait.
The boats were purchased for 40% less than current market price - so quite a deal - and cancellation and penalty costs are ~$700-$1bn ($500mn has been formally written off to date)
And, it would have been delivered in 2026. The current ferries have a safe operating lifespan to 2029 - while maintenance costs have doubled due to age and are expected to reach $65mn next year!
But the good news is, after a long song, dance and script to try to nudge NZ towards privatised non-rail enabled ferries, National’s plans may have been foiled after successive Kiwirail and Bluebridge ferry incidents, and Kiwis’ general disdain towards not accounting for a proper North-South ferry link.
Luxon and Willis are talking up rail this week - and that’s good news for Kiwis.
The bad news is it won’t be delivered in 2026 and we are going to bear the cost and safety risks of the old ferries until then - not to mention losing a once in a decade deal for the hybrid ferries.
Let’s see how it all pans out - an announcement is forthcoming this year and I have no doubt it will be painted with a big red bow by Willis and Luxon.
Privatisation and NZ being bought up rich investors
If there’s one negative universe NZ could forseeably avoid, it’s to go down the tested Tory UK playbook of privatisation and overseas ownership.
Except that’s just not the vision of our Prime Minister or his government - clearly telling the press this week that the newly created Infrastructure Agency will be ensuring there is an “investable pipeline of assets that actual overseas investors could invest in with respect to public infrastructure….” whether that’s “schools, health, hospitals, roads, water”.
And David Seymour proudly proclaiming: “At the core of these principles is reversing the presumption that investing in New Zealand is a privilege.”
Yes, NZ, under the direction of Atlas Network people like Taxpayers Union is basically going to bail out Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis’s financial and strategic ineptitude - through asking for private money, taking debt off our government books - and selling off our assets and/or funding it with private mechanisms.
That includes water assets, according to Luxon’s latest statements, and I’m surprised no-one has picked it up yet.
He promised, right?
Look the reason why it’s important to do due diligence on foreign investments and acquisitions is mani-fold, but includes:
Security
Protection of Kiwis over the short and long term - especially as it pertains to market risks and price gouging
Protection of habitat, including fertile land, environment and wildlife
Protection of commercial interests e.g the lucrative Tui oilfield clean up cost NZ $1bn - $539mn clean up to taxpayers and $500mn to creditors while the Texas owned company made off with billions.
Protection of land and housing for Kiwis
Again - where is the Opposition? Someone mentioned these MPs are paid handsomely, their parties receive funding, and they can’t get in front of anyone to speak?
Louise Upton Is At Again - Manipulating Child Poverty Statistics
After quietly shrinking two of our primary child poverty measures earlier this year, saying it wasn’t achieveable - and which Green MP Ricardo Menendez March called out - Louise Upton is back to her dirty tricks again.
This time, she wants to change the way child poverty is measured and reported under the Child Poverty Related Indicators (CPRIs).
Under current legislation, Upton is required to set at least one CPRI. The previous government set five - housing affordability, housing quality, food insecurity, regular school attendance and potentially avoidable hospitalisations.
But Louise Upton wants to modify those to Luxon’s KPIs - including fewer people on jobseekers and fewer in emergency housing.
Professor Jonathan Boston, a child poverty expert said the minister’s proposals were “concerning”.
“The proposed measure [of people in emergency housing] captures only a tiny fraction of the population and is not specifically focused on children.
Boston said the two existing housing measures (unaffordable and poor quality housing) were focused on children and provided “highly relevant” information about a key driver of childhood poverty that can exacerbate life-long poverty due to greater ill-health, lower educational attainment, lower income and constrained financial resources.
“With respect to fewer people on Jobseeker Support Benefit, again, this is not a measure of the drivers of childhood poverty. The appropriate measure is the number of children in benefit-dependent households……
“….I see no value in such a strategy. It does not serve the common good or the public interest. Nor does it help our most deprived and needy children. It is simply cheap politics.”
Cheap politics - which I call dirty - at the expense of our tamariki is regrettably on brand for this marketing PR driven Government.
But so sad for our children and their whanau.
