The tide has started to turn on Finance Minister Nicola Willis as KiwiRail paints a grim picture of her decision to call time on its Cook Strait mega ferry project.
She made a bold move late last year to decline KiwiRail’s request for more money after the Inter-island Resilience Connection (iReX) project ballooned to almost $3 billion.
It sent a sharp warning to the public sector that this Government is not afraid to shake up projects that may have previously been presented as a fait accompli.
It played well for the newly minted finance minister, but it was always a risk because Willis made the call without having a plan B.
The only new thing the Government has announced this year concerning the ferries is appointments to a new ministerial advisory group to consider the future of the Cook Strait service. Nelson Airport chief executive Mark Thompson will chair the group and is joined by two other members – Mark Cairns and Roger Sowry.
