Gordon Campbell: Gordon Campbell On The Latest Round Of Ferry Follies

The scorned iRex option would have entered service in 2026. Thanks to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, there will now be a three year delay until 2029 at the earliest. Instead of fit-for-purpose iRex ferries, Willis is likely by then to have saddled us with smaller, less capable, more weather vulnerable ferries able to carry only a bit more freight and a few more passengers than the Interislander. In the meantime, the advent of Winston Peters as the newly-minted Minister of Rail has exposed the deep rifts around the coalition Cabinet table.