Ferry fiasco will echo for decades with private public partnership

Opinion: Ever seen someone lose a billion dollars on a single roll of the dice?
We’re about to see just that as the chickens come home to roost on the Finance Minister’s reckless decision to cancel the iRex ferries. A single decision that was made days before South Korean shipbuilders were about to cut the steel for the ships’ hulls. Industry consensus is that the break fee on the 2021 fixed price contract for two ferries fitted out for optimal use for Cook Strait is likely to be $300 to 500 million.