• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Brooke van Velden are set to make a health and safety announcement.
• Luxon faces pressure to denounce Winston Peters’ comments targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.
• Peters announced a plan for two new rail ferries, with costs rising to about $3 billion.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is expected to be joined by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden at a post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon.

The pair are expected to make a health and safety-related announcement. The press conference will start around 4pm and will be live-streamed here.

Luxon is also expected to be asked about calls to denounce the behaviour of his deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who has been accused of spreading disinformation and “fanning the flames of hatred towards the rainbow community” following his comments targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.

The controversy involves Doyle’s social media posts that use queer community language.

“It’s clear the Green Party think that Doyle’s posts, language and innuendo are perfectly acceptable – the rest of New Zealand does not – including members of the rainbow community. Any kiwi looking at those posts would have some serious questions and doubts about the suitability of these Green Party MPs,” Peters posted on X.

Doyle, who uses they/them pronouns, won’t be at Parliament this week as the party deals with what Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick earlier said were “real world threats” against the MP and their whānau.

“Enough is enough. The Prime Minister must shut down this behaviour,” Swarbrick said.

Peters held a press conference on Monday afternoon where he questioned claims he was spreading disinformation.

“I didn’t make the posts, [Doyle] did. This is identity politics at its worst. This is virtue signaling at its worst.”

Peters, who is also the Minister for Rail, announced today a “plan” for what he is calling “two new rail ferries” to replace the ailing fleet of three Interislander ferries in 2029.

The ferries would have “road and rail decks” which would load rail freight on and off the ships in “single shunt movements”.

That project started life as a $775 million project, according to a 2018 business case to purchase two rail-enabled large ferries and to upgrade the port infrastructure in Wellington and Picton.

Blowouts to the infrastructure side of the project meant that by the time Willis declined a further funding injection, the total cost of the project was about $3 billion.

Peters said the ships the Government was looking for would be “approximately 200m long - longer and wider than the current fleet”, however they would be shorter than the ferries ordered under Labour in 2021.

The size of these ferries was one of the reasons why costs blew out, because they required much larger portside investment.

Peters said the Government would replace infrastructure in Picton, which was old and needed replacing. The infrastructure in Wellington “has life left in it”, Peters said, “so it will be modified and re-used”.

Labour, KiwiRail, and councils respond

The Labour Party attacked the coalition for cancelling the ferry contract.

“Instead of scoring two ferries for $551 million, Winston Peters has informed us he will progress with two smaller ferries but has no contract, or costs,” Tangi Utikere, Labour’s transport spokesman said in a statement that focused on the cost of the ferry contract and did not mention the blowout in landside infrastructure costs.

KiwiRail Chief Executive Peter Reidy said the decision to go with rail-enabled ferries was “great news for the public, international visitors and the entire freight market”.

“As New Zealand’s only company moving freight by rail, KiwiRail is particularly happy to see that specifications are for rail-enabled ferries which will ensure the lowest operating cost for rail freight and increased capacity for road transport operators,” Reidy said.