Half of Kiwis think the Government made the wrong decision to cancel Interislander’s new ferries, according to the latest 1News Verian poll.
In December, Cabinet refused to give KiwiRail anymore cash for the iRex project after the budget blew out to $3 billion, leaving the planned mega ferries dead in the water.
The poll asked: “Do you think the Government made the right or wrong decision to cancel the replacement Interislander Cook Strait ferries?”
Around half (51%) of the respondents said it was the wrong decision, one-quarter (26%) said it was the right decision, while a little under a quarter (22%) didn’t know or wouldn’t say. Due to rounding, the percentages don’t add to 100.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis stood by the decision, pointing out the majority of the cost of iRex was on port upgrades rather than the ferries themselves.
“I think that the poll asks the wrong question because the Government is replacing the ferries,” Willis said.
“If you’d asked New Zealanders ‘should we replace the ferries in the way that is the best value for money?’, I think you’d find most would say ‘yes’.”
Earlier this year, ministers appointed a ministerial advisory group which reported back to them in June with options around new ferries. No announcement has been made at this stage.
1News last month reported $484m has already been spent on iRex, not including the cost of breaking the contract for the mega ferries.
Willis said the cost of replacing the ferries will be “significantly” less than the “flawed” project.
However, Labour leader Chris Hipkins wasn’t convinced.
“Given we’re going to end up to pay significant penalties to the ship builders who were building those ferries, we should be looking at whether we can resurrect that contract,” Hipkins said.
He was also critical of the fact the decision was made last year without an alternate plan in place and concerned the new ships wouldn’t be rail enabled.
“I think the Government’s handling of issues around the Interislander has been completely shambolic. They were more interested in scoring points than actually coming up with a viable plan.”
Transporting New Zealand chief executive Dom Kalasih said while he understood why the iRex project was scrapped, the Government needed to better communicate what was happening.
“The feeling from our sector is not so much whether it was a good or bad decision. But just the concern is there’s the uncertainty – what is going to happen next?”
The 1News Verian poll surveyed 1001 eligible voters and ran from August 10 to 14.