- By Laura Kvigstad, Auckland Council reporter
Funded by New Zealand on Air
Auckland councillors are calling for the Fullers 360 ferry contracts to be made publicly available as service levels dwindle.
At the Transport and Infrastructure Committee on September 21, chair John Watson and cr Wayne Walker called for the Fullers 360 ferry contracts of Gulf Harbour, Half Moon Bay, Devonport and Hobsonville to be publicly available.
Watson said he did not know a word of what was in the contracts and doubted that the penalties for the cancelled ferry services measured up to the effect it had on ferry users.
“What is on the public record, under a year ago a $351 million contract was signed with Fullers 360 to deliver ferry services to Devonport, Half Moon Bay and Hobsonville for 12 years and the Gulf Harbor route for six years,” Watson said.
When the contract was signed, Watson said he naively believed the generous contract would see significant improvements to the service for his community.
Prior to the last contract, he said the Gulf Harbour service had a six per cent cancellation rate and the recent announcements to cut services further would see the cancellation rate go to 84 per cent.
“They [Fullers] will be providing 16 per cent of the contract – are they being paid 16 per cent of what was signed up less than 12 months ago? I somehow think not.”
He said the public, rightfully, was demanding information on the contracts and wanting to know how public money was being spent.
Cr Wayne Walker said there was a lot of secrecy around the contracts and called on Auckland Transport (AT) to make them available.
“There is a significant sum of money that could fund another operator. Can that not happen? There are questions outstanding and the public really deserves some answers to them,” Walker said.
“I would say to Auckland Transport, look very closely at the contracts and ask the question, why not make the maximum information publicly available?”
Cr Richard Hills rebuffed the councillors claims that there was secrecy around the contracts and said if the councillors asked AT, they could see the contracts.
“The contracts are available. After the contracts were signed, I asked for them. When ferries don’t complete a service, they do get their contract reduced,” Hills said.
He said he was also unhappy with the level of ferry service but that the issue was crew shortages and skippers took years to be trained.
“The other issue was boats; we have now got four boats – they are now owned and maintained by Auckland Transport.”
With Auckland Transport having ownership of boats, Hills said it would be easier to contract services to other operators.
“In the past, operators have approached us but do not have the boats so never managed to reach the threshold to tender for those routes so that will add competition.”
Cr Chris Darby commended Auckland Transport for finding a new operator for the Birkenhead, Northcote, Bayswater ferry route.
“Explore has tried to be in the public transport business before but they were headed off, pretty much priced out of the market some years ago by the operator that’s there now,” Darby said.
“They are well resourced. You need those well-resourced, well-capitalised companies to come into that market. I think it’s important to understand that in the ferry game, we are playing a long game.”
