Written By:
- Date published:
11:06 am, July 12th, 2024 - 5 comments
Categories: infrastructure, national, nicola willis, privatisation -
Tags: economic management, Kiwirail
Cross posted from Mountain Tui‘s substack post.
OPINION: Yesterday, 1News reported that the Government’s “independent” advisory group had recommended Kiwirail offload its ferries to another entity.
Except this wasn’t entirely new news at all, besides that it came formally from Nicola Willis’s advisory team.
TVNZ is under significant cost pressure, and earlier this year, after expressing strong discontent with our media, David Seymour said he was going to review TVNZ’s value for money proposition. The timing of their broadcast also doesn’t appear to allow deep dives.
From my perspective, the National Government has been slow-leaking its intent over the last few months.
Why do I say that?
Let me elaborate. I think that their intentions and plan could not have been clearer since the start and there have been a number of ‘tells’ in this regard –
Their first and biggest tell was cancelling the fixed price contract, that would have delivered next generation, future-proofed, rail ferries appropriate for the Cook Strait, within appropriately seismic terminals, by 2026.
The second giveaway was appointing an “independent Ministerial group” to advise Willis on what should be done.
Thirdly, in February 2024, it was reported that the Government’s Ministry of Transport, under Transport Minister Simeon Brown’s directive, was investigating the ‘hypothetical exit’ of Kiwirail from the ferry business. Part of that review included options such as relying on the private operator Bluebridge.
Then, after the Aratere was grounded, it brought a lot of attention and publicity to Kiwirail again. We saw Government ministers come out forcefully to criticize Kiwirail even before the grounded ferry was towed. And well before, anyone reliably knew what had happened.
Number five: This video – enough said.
I am sure the irony is not lost on some of us who might see someone like John Oliver or The Onion’s editorial team blast out a headline:
“New Zealand Government cancels Kiwirail’s new ferries. Months later, New Zealand Government says Kiwirail has no new, capable ferries and MUST divest from the ferry business.“
If only this was satire.
On Thursday, National and ACT’s associate, the tobacco money funded Taxpayers Union, co-founded by Chris Bishop’s father and where Casey Costello came from before working for tobacco, I mean, Government, came out with a poll that showed most New Zealanders support Kiwirail selling off ferries to a “private operator.”
If I was you though, I’d write to the Prime Minister, local media, your friends, family, and your MP to tell them New Zealand is tired of corporatising our assets. This Government appears to be birthed with privatisation in mind, in my opinion, and the Coalition’s calls for “PPP” i.e public private partnership, since forming Government has been palpable and insistent.
Kiwirail was privatised once before. It was brought back for a reason.
Also, the Tory privatisation dream failed. Why should we follow suit? Anyone?
The “independent panel” reveal has been used by this Government many times now – Kāinga Ora, Kiwirail, Fast-Track. And there are more ahead.
To be very clear – Governments can and should rely on independent expertise. This is a large part of why Select Committees are important, and shouldn’t be sidestepped without a valid, contextual reason. Say, for the 14 repeals under urgency this Government made in its 100 days.
However, when expert panels are made up of people like former National Party MPs, donors’ Directors, former National Party Prime Ministers etc. and who seem to echo this Government, then it is time news media stop repeating the words “expert” or “independent.”
Aotearoa New Zealand deserves better than this. So does the world.
Did you know?
RNZ
Aratere is New Zealand’s only rail-enabled ferry, meaning it can transport trains across Cook Strait. In effect it’s an extension of the Main Trunk Line and forms an integral part of the rail network. The Aratere, along with its sister ferries Kaiarahi and Kaitaki, carried billions of dollars of freight every year
NACTFirst assumes we are gullible idiots. Sad fact…more than a few are ( sucked in by dvds, icecream,$20 tax breaks, etc…: ( You are doing a great job to lay NACTFirst scumbags…bare. Keep up your exposing work Mountain Tui. Awesome stuff ! : )
Who this government echos, is probably closer to the truth!
We all know what an "expert" is:
"x" is the unknown quantity, and
"spurt" is a drip under pressure.
The so called "independent panels" are hardly independent when they are composed of National Party acolytes. And more than likely well briefed on the expected outcome and recommendations.
Funny that the tax payers union is really really quite over this government paying big bucks to consultants.
Interesting that..