43611 (2025). Tangi Utikere to the Minister for Rail

43611 (2025). Tangi Utikere to the Minister for Rail: How will the specifications of the two new ferries under the current Cook Strait ferry project differ from the vessels planned under the iReX project?

Rt Hon Winston Peters: These ferries will be 20 metres shorter in length. The major difference relates to the landside infrastructure, as we are retaining infrastructure as was the plan in 2020 but was wantonly disregarded between 2021 and 2023 resulting in an egregious blowout in the total programme cost.