After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive.

“For someone who rates their own fiscal management, Nicola Willis has botched the ferries deal,” Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said.

“She has taken a whole year to come up with smaller ferries that are going to cost the country more money in the long run. The portside infrastructure will still have to be built, she’s just burdening future New Zealanders with the cost.

“Nicola Willis came into Government and immediately rolled back the ferries deal with no plan B. It was a knee-jerk reaction and Kiwi companies and taxpayers will pay the price.

“This Government is making decisions that will fail future generations. It talks about good infrastructure planning with one hand while running down our infrastructure just to make a political point with the other.

“Nicola Willis’ legacy will be New Zealanders waiting years longer for smaller and lower quality ships and hiked costs to exit the existing contract.

“We are now at the end of the queue for new ships as procurement hasn’t even started. 2026 should have been the year for the delivery of new ferries, instead this government’s deal making means we will have no ferries, just a big bill for the cancellation costs.

“Cancelling the order for two rail-enabled Cook Strait ferries has already cost KiwiRail half a billion dollars in sunk costs and it will likely be hundreds of millions more to break the contract.

“Choosing to go ahead with ferries that are not rail-enabled would mean higher costs for ports, freight companies and consumers.

“Nicola Willis botched this deal from the moment she was in the captain’s chair. It was just the beginning of the poor choices she’s made over the past year,” Barbara Edmonds said.