7. AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
What measures has the Government recently taken to lift the performance of KiwiRail?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
We are moving to be much clearer with the KiwiRail board that this Government expects answers to questions like: “What is the $130 million of subsidy being spent on?”. At the same time, we have decided to invest in propositions put forward by that board that we believe make sense, such as the spending of $39.9 million on 17 new passenger carriages for the Tranz Scenic route, and $75 million for 20 new locomotives. We believe that this will help to lift KiwiRail’s performance on two key tourist routes, as well as its freight business.
Well, to define them as commitments is to somewhat dignify a stream of press releases issued during election year. It turns out that those press releases add up to commitments of about $3 billion, but not many people in the rail system have been able to tell us what they are for and what difference they will make.
Hon Darren Hughes Link to this
When considering the performance of KiwiRail, does the Minister believe that the Government will be a majority shareholder in KiwiRail in 5 years’ time, when the recession that he calls the worst in 90 years is over?
The Government is the owner of a business now that probably has no value, in fact has negative value, having just 8 months ago paid almost a billion dollars for it. We will have to keep this business and try to make it work, because no one in his or her right mind would be willing to pay anything like what the taxpayer has put into it.
We have changed quite significantly the approach of Government to deciding these investments. Instead of issuing press releases in the hope that some day the money will show up to back them, we have decided to upgrade rail infrastructure where there is clear evidence that it will improve service and provide a decent return on taxpayers’ money.