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Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks to Alex Montrose for alerting me to this.

From Stuff today:

The Government has paid $144 million to cancel a deal it had with Hyundai to build two new Interislander ferries. That’s on top of $78m already paid to the shipyard.

The sum of KiwiRail’s settlement with the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard was revealed on Friday, through a joint statement from Rail Minister Winston Peters and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.

As part of its iRex project, which Willis cancelled when the Government came to power, KiwiRail had ordered two new rail-enabled ferries.

It had agreed to buy the ships for $551m.

Why is it particularly worrying for New Zealanders to not have new ferries soon?

This:

New Zealand government’s incompetence on new ferry builds, to avert further repeated collisions, near things with rocks and running aground, already costs $300 million in cancellation costs and the need is now urgent to get new ferries built before any more failures occur

Source:

^{https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360792427/government-pays-almost-150-million-cancel-new-ferries-contract?fbclid=IwY2xjawMMMBJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsQAVZCF1nzGgWsj7PafJ-M3WJERvCPsNREAHxg_XKP8nv8e5R6lMynV3Pde_aem_Pv5k4CxiUfOW1arvON4DVw}