From Scoop today:
Thanks to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, New Zealand is now going to have to rely for the next decade or more on a couple of car ferries leased or purchased on the second hand ferry market and adapted as best we can to serve the crucial freight and tourism link between the islands.
In the wake of the Willis decision, the political to and fro has consisted almost entirely of virtue signalling about the cost blowout, rather than on how we now aim to future proof a vital service. Reportedly, Willis baulked at a blowout in extra costs of roughly $1.7 billion. This is significantly less than the Ferrari tax cut that Willis is planning to give to landlords. There’s a pattern here. In 2010, a previous National government saw fit to spend $1.6 billion to bail out investors in South Canterbury Finance.
The ferries project’s total cost – circa $3 billion – is the same amount that we have spent without a second thought on buying and kitting out four surveillance aircraft for the Defence Force. Ultimately, it is a matter of priorities.When it suits the government of the day, it spends the money. Arguably, future proofing the Cook Strait ferry service should be a very, very high priority. Instead, it is being treated as a political football.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2312/S00029/on-the-ferry-follies-of-nicola-willis.htm
Commenting in the Standard today, KJT said:
The absolute lunacy of cancelling the rail ferry project.
This piece of infrstructure vandalism, which seems to be SOP for the new Government will cost many more times 3 billion, over time.
Kicking the can down the road , resulting in long term infrastructure deficits fueling a continued descent into third world status, is a feature of National Governments which voters appear to forget at election times. The Nelson rail link is just one example. I suppose the Marsden Point rail connection will again be canned.
This Government will be remembered in the same way as the Liz Truss fuckup in the UK. Unfortunately the bill will come in well after they are voted out. Just like the Key Government. Where we are still paying the costs of their myopic neglect of infrastructure, Health, Housing, education, and other essential building blocks of a successful country.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-week-of-going-backward/
In Scotland, the SNP Government remains committed to building new ferries.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Thanks to your in depth research John we have learned that if you are in the business of making a fast buck then operating ferries are not for you.
Ferries are a public service and as such are mostly on the cost side of a balance sheet.
If governments decide that certain parts of their territory are costing too much to sustain then they can simply cease subsidies and leave remote regions to survive on their own resources.
Most governments view territorial possession as a function of their self importance so will always do what is required to maintain control over seemingly economically unimportant areas.
In Scotland,the narrative from the Anglo media is that our SNP government are mismanaging public services and that by implication,we would be far better off having London making decisions for us.
How many island communities does England have and what is their experience of having to manage them?
Chagos Islands??
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O/T check it out.
https://www.gasworld.com/story/acorn-project-signs-co2-storage-and-transportation-deal-with-uniper/2131611.article/
They take our oil and also our electricity which is sent south then back to us at a very extra cost.
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Thanks for the link. Interesting!
Looks like an England-based, presently polluting business operation – a gas power station – agreeing to become reliant on the infrastructure in a prospective independent Scotland in order to store its carbon dioxide output.
On the face of it, is that not the vector of strategic, commercial ‘dependency’ links it would be good to have more of in Scotland’s favour?
Of course, the fiscal benefits to Scotland also only accrue when the Acorn partners – their subsidiaries registered in an independent Scotland – pay business taxes to Scotland’s treasury.
Wonder why this English power station opted for Acorn – the ‘reserve’ in Westminster’s initial ranking of CCS infrastructure projects – rather than Westminster’s preferred CCS projects based offshore England?
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