Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is refusing to comment on how much it's costing to pull out of a deal by the previous Government to replace the Interislander ferry fleet and infrastructure.
There have been calls for the Government to take some responsibility for New Zealand's ferry woes. Interislander, run by state-owned KiwiRail, currently has just one working Cook Strait vessel after the 26-year-old Aratere ran aground near Picton on Friday night.
"The iRex project for new ferries and terminals should have been reconfigured rather than cancelled outright," Maritime Union national secretary Carl Findlay said on Tuesday.
"Industry sources have suggested that the all up cost of the new builds could be up to $1.2 billion - more than double the $551 million cost of the vessels for the cancelled iRex project.
"There needs to be an accounting of costs incurred up to now, including any break fees, a far higher price point for new builds ordered now, and a probable five year wait for new vessels to come into service."
Speaking to AM on Tuesday, Luxon stood by his Government's decision to scrap the iRex contract for two new Interislander ferries and terminal upgrades - locked in by the previous Labour administration.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced late last year the Government wouldn't contribute significant new funding for the project, after revelations it had quadrupled to about $3.2 billion.
"I'm really pleased that we did cancel it because when you've got good money going after a bad project, that's not great and the braver call is to... call time on it and say, 'I'm sorry, we're not spending $3.2 billion with massive infrastructure investment in the ports of Picton and Wellington to accommodate those new ships' - which was a major problem," Luxon told AM host Lloyd Burr.
But when asked about what it was costing to scrap the original project, Luxon refused to say.
"Look, that's being worked through as they are in negotiations with the shipyard company HMD," Luxon said of KiwiRail. "I'm not going to touch that because, obviously, they're commercially sensitive and they're ongoing negotiations.
"The reality is, the project started off at $750 million - [it] ended up, when we came to power, at $3.2 billion [with] no end in sight."
Burr put it to Luxon, citing a KiwiRail whistleblower, the winding down of the project was reportedly costing $300 million. Asked to confirm that figure, the Prime Minister said he wasn't "getting into that".
According to the Prime Minister, the government "needs the time" to digest potential Cook Strait ferry options - despite calls for urgent replacements following the Aratere grounding.
The Government needed to get the right ships for New Zealand, Luxon said.
"We've appointed a ministerial advisory group; they've come through with a report at the end of last week, the shareholding ministers will digest that, discuss that further in Cabinet - but we are committed to making sure that we actually get new boats that are fit for purpose... on the Cook Strait - so we're working incredibly hard at that and we'll have a solution for that in due course."
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