We currently have a small scuffle between Labour's Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and the Government's Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis. 

Barbara thinks Nicola should resign. The precursor is the ferry problem, as in the Cook Strait ferries. 

Nicola cancelled them by telling the KiwiRail board there was no way in hell she was buying into anymore of their cost, plus accounting, practices they seemed to be running the company with. 

The multi-billion dollar plan of redeveloping berths and buying new ferries had exploded out to a farcical number and she wasn’t having it. And I think most people thought she had done the right thing. 

What we don’t know is what it will cost us to get out of the contract with the Koreans. 

Barbara says if it's more than it would have cost to buy the ships she should quit. 

The nearest we have to a bill is the Prime Minister on this show, who said it won't be more expensive than buying them. In other words, yes they will need to pay a break fee but it will still save money. 

Obviously the old "she needs to resign" game is stupid. But the part that makes this example more interesting is there is no room for debate, given we are dealing with numbers. 

General scandal and the calls for quitting is often in the eye of the beholder - David Clark cycling during Covid, Iain Lees-Galloway not reading reports and Stuart Nash doing stuff he was told not to. 

But in this case a couple of ferries comes with a cost, as does the cancellation of a contract, and those costs are indisputable. They are numbers on paper. 

The fact is we need ferries. Cook Strait is State Highway 1 and we like State Highway 1, especially when it's made of tarseal. I can't see why the water bit isn't as important. 

Yes, we buy ships fit for purpose and yes, KiwiRail seems spectacularly inept. 

But, the cancellation comes at what cost? How much is literally flushed down the dunny? 

That number might not need a resignation but it might, if it's bad, burn a lot of economic credibility and political capital.