If you think it’s expensive to travel around the country now, it’s about to get more expensive with KiwiRail ditching one of its ferries.

But even though flying isn’t cheap, KiwiRail can forget about me making any interisland ferry bookings. Because why would ya?

Two dungers —either of which can be out of service on any given day— no thanks.

This all goes back to the decision by the Government not long after it came to power to pull the plug on the mega ferry project that Labour seemed to have an open cheque book for.

Originally, the cost of getting the new mega ferries and bringing the portside infrastructure up-to-scratch was going to be around $1.5 billion.

But that blew out to $3 billion and Finance Minister Nicola Willis said “no” when KiwiRail came knocking asking for more money.

She said at the time that Cabinet wasn’t confident that there wouldn’t be further cost blow-outs. A bit further down the track, she washed her hands of the whole thing and handed-it over to Winston Peters who became the Minister for Rail with his number one job being to find cheaper ferries and fast.

And, as we now know, they're expected to be here in 2029. In fact, pretty much all we know. We don't know how much they're going to cost. We also don't know how much it has cost or is going to cost the Government to get out of the original ship building contract.

But this isn’t about the politics today. The conversation today is about KiwiRail running just two ferries on Cook Strait for the next four years, and what that’s going to mean.

What it’s going to mean for passengers, and what it’s going to mean for people shifting freight up and down the country.

Let’s start with passengers: there’s no doubt it’s going to get more expensive to cross the Strait. That’s just how business works.

The Aratere does two crossings a day and can carry up to 400 passengers. So there’s 800 passengers a day that won’t be crossing. To be fair to KiwiRail, they are saying that they think the most impact on passengers will happen during the peak season.

But, either way, it’s only going to lead to increased prices and decreased reliability.

Then there’s the freight issue. There’s already no shortage of people saying how unreliable the Interislander has become for them getting their products to and from the North and South Islands.

I see that road freight lobby group Transporting New Zealand is saying that the Aratere going out of service will create more risk for freight.

Chief Executive Dom Kalasih is saying today that it will be "fascinating” to see what happens with freight with no rail-enabled ferries.

But it’s not the lack of rail that’s going to be an issue, because guess how much freight in New Zealand is carried on trucks? Ninety percent. And a lot of them will be trucking operators that cross Cook Strait on the Interislander, competing for space paying higher prices.

And businesses paying more will mean everybody paying more.

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Get ready for what we now know will be a winter of discontent after the announcement by Nicola Willis that she is slashing government spending.

Which shows us once and for all, that the income tax cuts were a dreadful mistake. Because it’s not just ideology driving these budget cuts - it’s need.

The Government has much less money coming in the door through taxation - which means it’s got much less to spend.

And, maybe conveniently, the Finance Minister’s announcement yesterday came 48 hours before 5,000+ senior doctors go on strike wanting more pay.

But if the Minister was watching the news last night, she would have seen people asked in the street what they thought she should focus her spending on in next month’s budget. And it was clear, hands down, that most people thought it was health. And I’m the same.

If there’s one thing that affects us all in some way, shape or form - it’s the state of the health system.

I think the Government needs to take holistic view of the world when it comes to health and not just pour money into hospitals. But I think health spending or increased health spending needs to go into things from treating people who are really crook, people who need treatment to live productive and happy lives, but also things that help prevent people from getting unwell in the first place.

The bigger issue for the Government though, aside from the state of the books, is maintaining public confidence. Winter is always the hardest time for us to keep our chin up and the Government will be aware of that.

And no amount of cheerleading or writing-off its political opponents as moaners with no ambition is going to cut it anymore. Nor is some of the patronising talk we’re hearing from the Finance Minister, who is at-risk of becoming as patronising as Jacinda Ardern was by the end of her tenure.

We don't need to be told about household budgets and credit cards being declined to understand that the country is in the shtook. Just like we don't need patronising talk about Toyota Corolla ferries instead of Ferrari ferries.

Even if you think Nicola Willis is the best thing since Ruth Richardson, you must be getting tired of some of the talk.

The other thing that gets me is that a lot of people bang on about us needing governments with business experience.

You know, successful people who know how to run a budget. But it always seems to me that when these so-called successful people do get into government, they do the complete opposite of what people expect them to do.

For example: when you run a successful business, yes, you do keep an eye on costs. But there’s another thing you do as well when you run a business: you try to get as much revenue in the door, as possible.

But this government has done the complete opposite of that with its tax cuts.

No one’s better off. And the Government has way less money to spend.

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The Labour Leader is pushing back against criticism of emergency housing motels amid an increase in reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki.

It estimates its seen a 45% increase in reports in the year to April, and data shows that as of March 31st, there were 1,391 children overdue to be given a social worker.

Chris Hipkins is rebuking the idea the situation is a legacy of the previous Labour Government, telling John MacDonald that economic circumstances often result in a rise in negative statistics, as families are under a lot of financial pressure.

He accepts this kind of thing builds over time, but an increase of this magnitude cannot solely be blamed on the previous government, and the current government has played a role.

"If we've got more kids living on the streets and living in cars because they've booted everyone out of emergency accommodation and they're being referred to Oranga Tamariki as a result of that, which the government was told would happen, with their emergency accommodation policy, then yes, that is the government's responsibility."

Motels were one of the Labour Party's emergency housing solutions, and Hipkins admits that it's not optimal, but it's better than having people living in cars or under bridges.

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