Kiwirail injunction labelled a 'disgrace'

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Kiwirail injunction labelled a 'disgrace'

3News NZ

Gerry Brownlee says Kiwirail has identified risks which will require investment

Gerry Brownlee says Kiwirail has identified risks which will require investment

By Emma Jolliff

Kiwirail has obtained an interim High Court injunction preventing the broadcast of an internal report about its plans to cut millions of dollars from spending on engineering and infrastructure.

But that didn't stop questions about the report in Parliament.

Kiwirail has already announced 181 job cuts, part of a $200 million reduction in investment over the next three years.

But it doesn't want Labour's Phil Twyford talking about an internal report he has been leaked, so it got an injunction prevent its publication.

That didn't stop Mr Twyford talking in Parliament, though.

"From 2014 onwards the rail asset will decline, disruption risk will grow… When spending gets back to current levels it will take many years to pull back from the decline… All rail routes will decline in someway, and by 2015 kiwirail will be doing 50 percent less track renewal," he said.

"The coal routes between Lytellton and the West Coast, and the route known as the Golden Triangle Forestry… Have been coded as TM4, which means they're unacceptable and pose a safety risk."

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says Kiwirail has identified risks which will require investment.

"We expect over the next few years $750 million to be invested in the network, and that will include $80 million in maintenance," he say. "That's quite a different picture to the one the member is trying to paint."

Kiwirail says it got an injunction on the publication of the report because "disclosure of documents of this nature undermines our process of rigorous identification of risk and associated mitigation steps".

Mr Twyford says it's a disgrace that a state-owned enterprise would take legal action stopping the people of New Zealand finding out what's going on in a company that they own.

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Comments

24/08/2012 10:22:51 p.m.

william wrote:

the reason theygot the injunction is simple it has nothing to do with what the manager said its because it contradicts what they are saying and the ministers are saying the track is not up to code and it will deteriate and trains will fall off and people will die

23/08/2012 7:40:10 p.m.

Bill wrote:

Once again a corrupt Govt Department covering up things, No surprise really in this Nanny Country, corruption is rife.