NZ First leader and acting Prime Minister Winston Peters says he is “going to find out more” about the Interislander Aratere ferry grounding after his party publicly questioned whether the vessel’s autopilot was left on.

NZ First, a coalition Government party, posed the extraordinary question on X yesterday about what might have gone wrong.

“Is it true that the Aratere ran aground when someone put the autopilot on, went for a coffee, and then couldn’t turn the autopilot off in time when that someone came back...?”, the party posted.

Maritime New Zealand has cautioned that “conjecture” about the cause of the incident is unhelpful while an investigation continues, and KiwiRail says the “regulated number of qualified people” were on the ship’s bridge on the night of the grounding.

In an interview on The Country today, host Jamie Mackay asked Peters where the rumour had started.

Peters said he saw NZ First’s social media post, which he clarified was not his post, and then read the responses to it in the Herald’s story.

“I thought crikey, that’s not a denial. That’s somebody who’s talking about an inquiry. Why would you need an inquiry four weeks later into something as simple as that? This is not complicated.”

Peters said he was going to find out more about it.

Mackay suggested to Peters that nothing happened at NZ First without his authority. Peters said the party has a team of people.

Maritime Union of New Zealand national secretary Carl Findlay said everyone needed to take a breath and wait for the outcome of the investigations into the grounding.

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“There’s that many stories going around, I’m not going to pour fuel on the fire”, he said when asked about NZ First’s post.

Findlay said the speculation and conjecture were “terrible”.

“Now the spotlight’s on all these people who probably don’t deserve to have the spotlight.”

Maritime lawyer Troy Stade, engaged by the New Zealand Merchant Service Guild union, said he could “categorically” rule out the involvement of any beverages.

Asked whether a problem with the autopilot system was related to the grounding, Stade said they were investigating all avenues.

“It’s public knowledge that the steering system was refitted earlier this year by KiwiRail. We are looking into the extent to which that system played a part, as part of an ongoing investigation.”

It was too soon to draw any concrete assessments, Stade said.

As to whether there was any indication of human error with using that new steering system, he said he was not aware of that being a factor.

“But again, this is something that will come to light as the investigation reaches its natural conclusion so, we’re making those inquiries ourselves in parallel with the regulator to address those points.”

The Aratere left Picton at 9.45pm on June 21 before suffering a reported steering failure and running aground shortly after. Photo / Tim Cuff 

Maritime New Zealand said in a statement that an investigation into the grounding was ongoing.

“Conjecture around the cause of the incident is unhelpful, as the cause of the incident is currently being investigated by both Maritime NZ and TAIC [Transport Accident Investigation Commission].”

“These investigations will determine what occurred to cause the vessel to ground.”

Maritime New Zealand has previously said its investigation is expected to take months.

Marlborough harbourmaster Jake Oliver said he could not comment on NZ First’s post because investigations were continuing.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown also referred to the investigations and said: “I look forward to the outcome of those investigations.”

KiwiRail Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy said KiwiRail would not normally respond to speculation while an investigation was under way.

“However, we can say that there is a regulated number of qualified people who need to be in attendance on the ship’s bridge at all times, and we meet this without exception - including on the night of the grounding.

“As formal investigations are ongoing, we will not be making further comment.”

The Aratere left Picton at 9.45pm on June 21 before suffering a reported steering failure and running aground shortly after. It is berthed at Waimahara Wharf in Picton and remains under a detention order. The ship cannot leave until Maritime NZ says it is safe.

There were 47 people on board the Aratere when it grounded last month and they had to stay the night on board before being safely escorted off the ship.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.