‘The country is broken’: Tough questions emerge over Aratere grounding

Sunday, 23 June 2024

Political and economic costs are piling up amid the aftermath of a shock ferry grounding in the Marlborough Sounds. It’s another embarrassing blow to our country’s crumbling infrastructure, writes Virginia Fallon.

For anyone needing a sign New Zealand has finally broken, it came on Friday night.

The Interislander ferry was grounded in the Marlborough Sounds, 47 people aboard, lights ablaze in the dark, and evoking for some the scenes of another terrible maritime disaster.

While the Aratere’s grounding fortunately didn’t result in any loss of life, it was a disaster all the same, taking out a critical piece of infrastructure with massive impacts on freight, travel, and potentially the Government.

Because it’s not just the Interislander that’s stuffed. This week a pylon fell over near Auckland’s Helensville, leaving more than 100,000 Northland properties without power, and last week an air force plane broke down, delaying the prime minister’s delegation to Japan.

Now, of course, the recriminations begin.

“It really does feel like the country is broken,” says Deborah Pead, communications expert and founder of Pead PR.

“There’s a lot of things to admire about NZ but our infrastructure is not one of them. ”

And while this is certainly an infrastructure crisis, it’s also fast becoming a political one.

Pead, who is no stranger to advising on crisis communications, says although this isn’t a time for blame, the piling-up of problems isn’t a good look for the country.

“It makes us look unprofessional, and the economic impact and lost opportunity of not having a robust infrastructure is a massive handbrake on the very issue we need to address.”

Trish Sherson, a political commentator and director of Sherson Willis, a PR and lobbying firm, agrees, saying at a time when New Zealand’s business and consumer confidence are at all-time lows, the ferry grounding comes as another blow.

“At the moment we have two major parts of State Highway 1 out - the Brynderwyns in the north and now the cargo ferries - and that has serious implications for New Zealand’s supply chain and business confidence.”

Speaking from Northland, Sherson says residents there have now been shown they’re “six stringy lines away at any time from being without critical infrastructure.

“I think it's a very poor reflection on the governance of New Zealand over successive decades that has got us to this point.”

The Aratere’s breakdown and subsequent beaching follows years of mechanical issues, accidents, near misses and a $54 million refit for a ferry dubbed 'El Lemon' shortly after it was built in Spain.

Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy said yesterday the vessel had suffered a 'steering failure' on Friday; the same day the company emailed commercial customers to advise the Aratere recently underwent an upgrade to its steering system.

Eight passengers and 12 crew were safely disembarked yesterday morning, but an initial plan to refloat the ferry at 9am was abandoned. Another attempt was expected to be made at 9pm last night.

Yesterday afternoon, Transport Minister Simeon Brown defended the Government’s decision to axe orders for new ferries after significant cost blow-outs.

KiwiRail’s “number one job is to maintain ferries”, he said, before taking an apparent swipe at the operator, pointing out that similar ferries were used elsewhere in the world.

The Government remained committed to the resilience of the Cook Strait connection, Brown said, including new ships.

But political commentator Liam Hehir says it’s going to be difficult for the Government to avoid the link between the grounding and its jettisoning of the $1.45b iRex project to acquire new Interislander ferries.

The Aratere grounding is 'another damning episode' where NZ 'had big aspirations and ambitions' to do things but eventually failed to see them through, he said.

The anger was already palpable on the streets of Picton, which has become a centre of rescue operations.

“Blame the prime minister,” a man walking his dog shouted at ferry bosses as they updated media yesterday afternoon.

He didn’t stop, and neither did KiwiRail’s Peter Reidy, who insisted KiwiRail was still the “best operator” to run the Interislander ferries across Cook Strait, the water section of State Highway 1.

Meanwhile, former politicians had plenty to add.

“Just saying,” tweeted former prime minister Helen Clark, “didn’t someone cancel the order for badly needed new NZ inter-island ferries?”

Michael Wood, a transport minister under the last Labour government, says it's been known for a long time the ferries are at the end of their useful lifespans.

“What today's events throw into relief is that the decision to stop those ferries being built isn't one that results in a quick replacement - we're looking at years and years before we have the security of new vessels.”

Until we do, both the cost of repairs and the risk of real maritime disasters will continue to increase, he says.

“It is very clear that it's a strategic priority for our country to get reliable vessels back on the crossing.”

Richard Wagstaff, president of the Council of Trade Unions, says the grounding is a warning about the state of a service carrying $15 billion of cargo annually.

“New Zealand has now found itself lucky twice with the Interislander. In 2023, the Kaitaki lost all power with more than 800 passengers on board.

“The health and safety of passengers and crew demands a full investigation.”

But in the meantime, other infrastructure and maintenance problems keep piling up.

Last week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was briefly stranded in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea after the air force plane meant to fly him and a large group on a trade mission to Japan broke down.

A “frustrated” Luxon caught a commercial flight to start the three-day programme, leaving Trade Minister Todd McClay and the 52-person business and media delegations to follow the next day.

Luxon also flew commercial to Melbourne earlier this year when an air force plane broke down in Wellington. He was due to meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations and missed two meetings because of his late arrival.

Then on Thursday, a toppled power pylon cut electricity to nearly 100,000 Northland properties, prompting Transpower to issue its second grid emergency notice this year.

While most properties had their supply restored by the end of the day, blackouts continued through Friday and consumers were warned to try to reduce their use.

The Northland Chamber of Commerce has put losses at about $80m, while Infometrics estimates the failure will cost the region $60m.

Back to Deborah Pead, who says it’s not just the major projects like “road, rail, power, water, schools, hospitals that feel broken”, pointing out the pedestrian bridge that connects Auckland’s Viaduct to Wynyard Quarter has been stuffed for months.

“Now we are told the next time we can expect to cross this is in December. In the interim retailers and hospitality in Wynyard Quarter slowly perish due to the loss of foot traffic. That’s a heavy load to saddle in the cost of living crisis.”

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says infrastructure will continue to crumble as long as decisions are made by bureaucrats instead of engineers.

'Forming a group of people and having them meet in Wellington has a perfect track record of never working.

'What also has the same record is every one of those government projects, like City Rail Link and the worst possible one being Transmission Gully.'

Ultimately, he says infrastructure remedies and designs need to be made by people with practical knowledge and experience.

'As soon as they allow anyone in Wellington to go near it its a f…-up.'

And just as the Government and all New Zealanders will soon be counting the cost of fixing Aotearoa, we should be counting our stars this latest disaster didn’t cost something much more important.

Maritime Union National Secretary Carl Findlay says if the steering had failed during bad weather, or when the ship was in Cook Strait, the outcome could have been disastrous.

He says the Government made a massive error cancelling the iRex project, with the Aratere’s grounding threatening not just the transport network but also the safety and wellbeing of crew and passengers.

“If this incident does not shake the Government out of its complacency about the need for investment in new vessels and infrastructure, what will it take?”

Additional reporting by Justin Wong and Ian Allen.

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