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Speaker 1: Then we've got bad news, more bad news around maintaining

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Speaker 1: stuff that's old. So the fairies are back in the

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Speaker 1: news this morning. Maintenance cost Qui Ray will tell us

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Speaker 1: for these three Into Islanders could blow out to sixty

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Speaker 1: five million dollars by next year. Victor Billow is with

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Speaker 1: the Maritime Union, he's with us, Victim Morning, Good Morning light.

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Speaker 1: Sixty five million versus three billion? What would you do?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'd look at what New Zealand needs, and we

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Speaker 2: feel that New Zealand needs a functioning, fits for purpose

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Speaker 2: ferries on the cock Strait, and I think that's the

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Speaker 2: overall picture, so that we're kind of in a sense,

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Speaker 2: it's almost throwing good money after bed because you're just

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Speaker 2: maintaining a fairies that are nearing the end of life anyway,

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Speaker 2: so they're not a long term option even with the maintenance.

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Speaker 1: How naked are they well, I mean, I think you

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Speaker 1: know they're sailing, But the.

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Speaker 2: Reality is if you've got a ship of that age

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Speaker 2: and they're all coming up to thirty years old more,

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Speaker 2: then it's going to have issues, especially on a tough

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Speaker 2: piece of water like the cook Straight. So I think

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Speaker 2: we're just going to probably see more maintenance issues and

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Speaker 2: as we've seen over the last couple of years, there

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Speaker 2: have been actually some incidents where the faery lost power

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Speaker 2: and the straight and that's not something we want to

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Speaker 2: be seeing happening again.

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Speaker 1: No, it does not. Do you have any sympathy for

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Speaker 1: the government in the sense that part of it? I mean,

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Speaker 1: what's your view of Kiwi Rail in the sense that

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Speaker 1: the part of the big blowout was not just the ships,

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Speaker 1: it was the land side operation there and that got

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Speaker 1: expensive and then the whole thing became a cluster and

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Speaker 1: then Nicola Willas turns out and works out we've got

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Speaker 1: no money. Do you have any sympathy for any of

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Speaker 1: that or not? Really?

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's fair enough that the government wants to

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Speaker 2: keep an eye on the cost of these projects. I

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Speaker 2: don't think anyone objects to that. It's the issue is,

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Speaker 2: as you've pointed out, the fairies were actually the cost

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Speaker 2: issue was more the land based terminals. But the problem

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Speaker 2: is is you can cancel things, but we're still that

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Speaker 2: might be the financially the best course of action on

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Speaker 2: the short term, but the problem is is we've still

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Speaker 2: got the out of date connection and I think that

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Speaker 2: it's this is an infrastructure government. They say they've put

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Speaker 2: a big, big focus on, you know, getting things done,

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Speaker 2: and they certainly invest a lot in motorways and we

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Speaker 2: see the Cook Straight crossing. I mean, that's just an

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Speaker 2: extension of the statehome one. Really, if you don't have that,

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Speaker 2: then the whole New Zealand transport system starts to look

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Speaker 2: a bit sketchy.

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Speaker 1: You make a very good point if if it was

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Speaker 1: just the fairies, the fairies alone, could it have been

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Speaker 1: a done deal and it was just the landside that

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Speaker 1: got a bit complicated and we could have got around that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, And I think that's you know, that's a fair comment.

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Speaker 2: But the question is is that where do we go

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Speaker 2: to from here? And we feel that there has to be,

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Speaker 2: you know, has to be revisiting of the project at

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Speaker 2: some point, and because it's you know, as we've seen

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Speaker 2: with these ongoing costs of just trying to keep things

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Speaker 2: up and running and patch things up. To be honest,

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Speaker 2: it's it's not really a good look for New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: and certainly down to the South Island where I'm at

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Speaker 2: at the moment, it's people very feel very strongly that

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Speaker 2: the Cook Island can Cook Straight connection has to be maintained.

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Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more. Victor appreciated very much. Victor Bill, who's

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Speaker 1: with the Maritime Union New Zealand. He makes for more

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Speaker 1: from News Talks, ed B Listen live on air or online,

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