21602 (2026). Camilla Belich to the Minister for Rail

21602 (2026). Camilla Belich to the Minister for Rail: For entities being abolished or merged as part of savings made in Budget 2026 for votes the Minister is responsible for, if any, has the Minister received advice that the functions could be performed more cost-effectively if the entity were retained; if so, will the Minister release that advice, broken down by agency, department, Crown entity, company, or other organisation for which the Minister is responsible?

Rt Hon Winston Peters: That would be a question to put to a portfolio Minister responsible for core public service agencies or Crown entites. The Minister for Rail is not one of those Ministers. You will note however that Ferry Holdings has an upper limit budget of $1.7 billion to deliver the Crown's share of works for our no-nonsense ferry replacement programme, saving the taxpayer $2.3 billion compared to the iReX programme overseen by the previous Labour Government. Its budget includes a healthy contingency and remains on-time and on-budget. Budget 2026 allocate $1.075 billion for that 2027-2030 Rail Network Investment Programme, representing the first time in history that any Government has fully funded a network investment programme, along with $106.9 million for another year of critical works in the Auckland and Wellington metropolitan networks. KiwiRail's freight, ferry, tourism, and property services are all paid for from revenue earned by providing services to customers.