Heather du Plessis-Allan: The ferry "announcement" is embarrassing

I think we can all have a guess at why the Government announced the ferry decision two weeks before Christmas. 

Because this is embarrassing, isn’t it? 

What have they been doing for the last year? 

How do you go a year after cancelling the mega ferries and still have nothing to show for it? 

No deal. No ferries. No price tag. 

Not even any detail on how much it's costing to break the deal on the mega ferries. 

All we’ve got is rumours and if those rumours are right, then we are going to spend more than twice what those two mega ferries were going to cost to buy two smaller ferries. 

Those mega ferries were $550m. The medium sized ferries will apparently cost $900m, plus a $300m break fee for the mega ferries. 

That’s $1.2b. 

We’d have been better off keeping the big boys, onselling them and using the money to buy the little ones. 

And don’t expect anything anytime soon. It won't be until the second half of next year before we actually know what’s happening. 

Time is of the essence because our existing ferries are running on hopes and prayers and masking tape. 

We’ve had one floating without power in the Cook Strait, another run aground on a sandy beach and various other mishaps. 

Now, I don’t think the mega ferries were the solution. 

But I’m starting to feel like this deal, whatever it is, could be even worse. I’m starting to think this might make the mega ferries look like value for money. 

And that's not a great outcome from National and Nicola Willis, who’ve told us they’re great at striking deals and managing money. 

Because this does not look like that at all. 

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