he community is invited to join a call for fairer ferry fares at Mātiatia this Sunday at 10am. Pictured from left, organisers Helen Fuller, Bianca Ranson and Amanda Sorenson.

Demonstrators will gather at Mātiatia on Sunday morning (16 July) to call for government action on Waiheke’s ballooning ferry prices. 

A flotilla of kayaks will gather on the water in what is billed as a peaceful and family-friendly protest, with people meeting on the beach from 10am including Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick.

The Green MP has been vocal in calling for government action on cheaper fares for Waiheke and plans a face-to-face meeting with new transport minister David Parker in coming weeks.

“Residents of Waiheke have a decade of experience with the legacy of the former National government’s exclusion of our local ferry service from the Public Transport Operating Model,” she told Gulf News. “Those adverse consequences are evident in the highest fares for a comparable route internationally, disrupted services and monopoly access to the island. 

“This weekend’s protest is just the latest in ongoing actions I am taking alongside residents frustrated by decisions that should have never been made in 2012.”

With just a handful of parliamentary sitting weeks left before the election, Swarbrick says it’s time to deliver change: “That was promised when we finally managed to initiate the Order in Council process back in June 2022.” • Lisa Hamilton

Full story in this week’s Gulf News… Out Now!!!

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