KiwiRail chair early retirement ‘unrelated’ to Aratere grounding

Sunday, 23 June 2024

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On the day Finance Minister Nicola Willis revealed a multi-billion fund for new Cook Strait ferries, she has announced the early retirement of the chairman of the KiwiRail board.

The two Sunday developments come after KiwiRail Interislander ferry the Aratere ploughed a Picton beach after a steering system failure on Friday night.

She said the early retirement of KiwiRail board chair David McLean, effective on July 31, was “unrelated” to the Aratere incident. His term was due to end in late-October.

“As ministers, we exercise our influence through our appointments to the board and the expectations we set for it,” she said.

McLean, in a statement, said he told government ministers he planned to step down last week: “I understand the government intends to announce my retirement today, so I have brought my announcement forward.”

Following the Aratere grounding, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said the government had 'ensured funding is available to purchase new ships'.

It came after the National-led government in December withdrew funding for two new ferries and infrastructure after the cost blew out from $1b to about $3b.

Willis on Sunday said the Government had $7.5b unallocated in the multi-year capital allowance.

'That means we can draw down on that funding to purchase ferries,' she said. 'Obviously the ferries will cost a lot less than that. Cabinet is yet to make decisions about how we procure new ferries.

'We received recommendations from our ministerial advisory group last week and are now considering those.

'The Government agreed new ferries were needed but needed to be fit for purpose, she said.

'The previous proposal included ships that didn't fit the berths and a host of other practical problems,' she said.

Friday night’s grounding as the ferry left dock in Picton has reignited questions about what the Government will do to ensure that the Crown-owned Cook Strait ferry service can keep running.

Brown over the weekend defended the coalition government’s decision to axe orders for new ferries after significant cost blowouts but said it remained committed to the resilience of the Cook Strait connection.

He said a report on replacement options for the Cook Strait ferries was delivered in the past week and ministers would consider it shortly.

On Friday night, Aratere, with 47 people on board, had a steering fault that saw it veer right soon after leaving dock at Picton and ploughing into a beach. Passengers were taken off the next morning, and crew were rotated before it was refloated.

Interislander general manager Duncan Roy on Sunday said the refloating was helped by a full moon on Saturday night, which meant the tide was 10cm higher than the morning high tide.

KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy stood by the ferries’ reliability. “I would take my own family on these ships,” he said.

But Maritime Union general secretary Carl Findlay on Sunday said the government needed to invest in urgent replacements or “there is going to be serious injury or death” from an Interislander fault.

Guardians of the Sounds chairman Peter Beech said Friday night’s beaching could have been a lot worse.

“It’s lucky it didn’t happen quarter of a mile the other way, or it would have blocked the whole harbour, and lucky that it happened in the inner Sounds, and not out in Tory Channel,” he said.

The ship was refloated on Saturday night and is now off Picton.

Maritime NZ director Kirstie Hewlett said an investigation into the grounding would begin on Sunday.

“They will carry out interviews, examine the scene and ferry, review documents and gather evidence,” she said.

“We will then decide what, if any, further action to take. The investigation is expected to take several months to complete.”

Maritime NZ is placing a detention order on the ship.

In January 2023 the Kaitaki, another of the three Interislander ferries, lost all power crossing Cook Strait with 864 people aboard. A full emergency response was activated as it was driven towards rocks in strong winds.

Anchors ended up holding and it limped back to port under its own steam.