Post-Cabinet Press Conference: Tuesday, 28 April 2026

Well, kia ora, good afternoon, everyone. Today I’m joined by Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones to announce a major step in the Government’s plan to shore up fuel supply in New Zealand.

Firstly, I just want to acknowledge the signing of the New Zealand‒India FTA, which took place yesterday. The signing marks a significant milestone in National’s missions to secure a free trade agreement with India. This genuinely is a once-in-a-generation deal that will lead to more jobs and higher incomes for Kiwis.

National made a commitment, a campaign commitment, to New Zealanders to secure an FTA with India in our first term. We were determined to deliver on that, and despite many people saying it couldn’t be done. I think that kind of can’t-do attitude has held New Zealand back for decades, but if we’re to turn this economy around and build a brighter future for our kids, we can’t be the country that says it’s too hard to even try. So we pursued the deal with dogged determination alongside our Indian counterparts, and we’re very proud of what we have secured. The benefits and the opportunities of this FTA are widespread and will grow exponentially. One in four jobs are tied to trade, and this deal will deliver thousands more jobs and billions of dollars in additional exports.

To maximise the benefit to our exporters, it’s important that we pass the legislation ratifying the Indian FTA before the House rises for the election. Likewise, it’s important we retain bipartisanship on trade, so Kiwi exporters have certainty and predictability no matter who is in Government. So I do welcome and appreciate Labour’s announcement of support for the FTA last week, which continues in the strong tradition of bipartisanship on trade. At a time of so much global unrest, a trade deal like this has never been more important or timely.

Strengthening relationships with international partners is part of how we bolster New Zealand’s resilience to global unrest and that is why our Government has strengthened our relationship with Singapore, which has long been a trusted partner of New Zealand. On Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s trip to New Zealand last October, we concluded an agreement on trade and essential supplies. This agreement is designed to keep things like fuel and food flowing in times of crisis between us. We couldn’t have foreseen that just over four months later, the world would enter the most significant fuel crisis in a generation. This agreement was set up exactly for this kind of crisis, and it ensures that Singapore will not put any export restrictions on fuel. Likewise, New Zealand will not restrict our exports to Singapore on food.

I’ll travel to Singapore on Sunday to meet with Prime Minister Wong. We are looking forward to getting this agreement formally signed while I’m there. However, it is already in operation. With Singapore refineries supplying a third of New Zealand’s fuel, Prime Minister Wong assured me at the very start of this crisis that Singapore will not restrict exports to New Zealand. That demonstrates the impact of maintaining and strengthening our international partnerships for the benefit of New Zealanders.

Turning to fuel, I’m going to briefly touch on the latest fuel stock levels. Yesterday’s update, as you would have seen, shows that New Zealand continues to have sufficient levels of petrol, diesel, and jet fuel in country, with more on the way. Fuel importers continue to report no material issues with shipments, and advise that they remain confident about planned orders into June. Therefore, we remain at phase 1 of our national fuel response plan. However, the situation in the Middle East remains uncertain and unpredictable. The ceasefire is fragile, and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. That has resulted in a major disruption to global fuel supply and directly led to higher fuel prices here at home for Kiwis.

We are supporting people hit the hardest by rising fuel prices with targeted measures that the country can afford, and we’ve done this through delivering an extra $50 a week to low and middle-income working New Zealanders with children, and increasing the mileage rates for home and community support workers, relief teachers travelling long distances to get to schools, and veterans needing to travel to make to medical appointments.

We know many, many more Kiwis are doing it tough, but as responsible stewards of the economy, the Government cannot afford to ease the pressure for everyone, and to try and do so would cause long-term economic pain for New Zealand that would be very difficult to recover from, as we learned firsthand from the economic mismanagement of COVID.

As Nicola outlined last week, the conflict will have an impact on our economy, and this is not unique to New Zealand. The global economy is worse off because of this conflict, but how we respond as a Government will factor into how severe and long-lasting the impacts are. We cannot accurately predict how high inflation will go or how much growth will slow—that all depends on the length and the scale of the conflict and the closure of shipping routes—but we can ensure we minimise the economic impact as much as possible.

While we remain open to providing further targeted support to people with the immediate pressures, we must stay focused on the long term and protect New Zealand’s economic future. The single most important thing that we can do to protect our economic future is to ensure we maintain fuel supply. As Minister for Regulation David Seymour said yesterday, one of the measures we are exploring to shore up supply is to remove regulatory barriers that could get in the way of maximising fuel efficiency down the road. We’ve been working with industry and the business community to understand what would help to stretch their fuel further and we’re now working through the various proposals that have been put forward.

Another way to shore up supply is to literally get additional supply into the country, and that is what we’re announcing today. Early into the conflict, we began exploring ways to secure additional fuel, over and above the minimum stock holdings of fuel companies, so that New Zealand is well prepared for the possibility of a prolonged global shortage.

We can now announce that the Government has signed a letter of intent with Z Energy to procure an additional 90 million litres of diesel. Reliable fuel supply is essential for our households and our businesses, and we have prioritised securing additional diesel because it is the fuel that drives the economy, and that will boost New Zealand’s diesel reserves and make the country more resilient at a time of global fuel market uncertainty. Earlier this month, as you know, the Government signed off almost $22 million to accelerate Channel Infrastructure’s refurbishments of its diesel storage tanks at Marsden Point, and that additional diesel supply will be stored in these tanks, which are due to be ready in June.

Before I hand over to Nicola and Shane, I just want to thank, firstly, both Ministers, but also our team of officials and negotiators, and of course our partners at Z Energy, who have all worked incredibly hard to secure this deal for New Zealand. This is a significant outcome which, alongside the other work the Government is doing, will strengthen our fuel security and give reassurance to Kiwis. And with that I’ll pass over to Nicola.

Thank you, Prime Minister. As the latest fuel stocks data shows and as the Prime Minister referred to, right now New Zealand retains sufficient level of fuel and fuel importers are not reporting any concerns about future supplies, assuring us they are securing orders into the future months. But this Government is being proactive. We are preparing for the possibility of fuel supplies being disrupted by a prolonged conflict in the Middle East. As we’ve shared with you previously, New Zealand already has a buffer of fuel reserves in the country. The deal we are announcing today beefs up the buffer. We are taking a belt and braces approach, on the one hand, ensuring that we are prepared for disruptions, and on the other hand, ensuring we have deeper reserves should that happen.

Therefore, we have today entered into an agreement to secure an additional 90 million litres of diesel in June or early July. That is equivalent to about nine days of supplies, so on top of the 21 days or so of diesel already in storage in the country, it adds around 50 percent to our reserve buffer. The diesel will be stored in the tank that’s being refurbished by Channel Infrastructure at Marsden Point, and it will be supplied by Z Energy.

Z Energy was selected following a contestable procurement process in which a number of bidders put forward proposals to provide extra reserves of fuel. That procurement process ultimately whittled down to two preferred entities, with Z coming out on top. The Z proposal provided the strongest value for money and the most flexibility about when and how the fuel could be used. Under the terms of the deal, Z Energy will procure, own, and manage the fuel. This is something that they are already experts at and not something the Government is an expert at. The Government will control the release of the fuel to the market and the timing of that release, should it be necessary.

I want to be clear, this additional fuel will not count against Z Energy’s existing minimum stockholding obligations during the terms of the agreement. And while the Government has secured this deal for the fuel to be released up to the end of December, we have the ability to negotiate an extension to it if need be.

Importantly, a key factor in our negotiation has been to limit the Crown’s exposure to any long-term fall in fuel prices. You can imagine that purchasing fuel at a particular point in time, and then that fuel reducing in value by the time it’s delivered, could potentially expose the taxpayer to risk. So, while I can’t go into the details of the commercial arrangement, our intent has been to limit the taxpayer’s exposure to any reduction in the price that could occur. It’s expected that the fuel will be delivered to Marsden Point in late June or early July.

I want to acknowledge the external negotiators we have employed to help get the best deal possible for the taxpayer. The individuals involved have had a combination of deep industry experience and expertise in commercial transactions, and they have negotiated hard to get us a really good deal.

I recognise there’s been some comparison with Australia’s efforts in this regard and I’d point out two things. First, Australia already had storage up and running. We’ve had to go out and secure storage first. And second, I understand that to date Australia has secured around 400 million litres of fuel. That’s equivalent to six to seven days of supply in Australia. Our deal equates to around nine days. It’s a good deal for the taxpayer. We’re taking a belt and braces approach. I think of this as an insurance policy to ensure that if the worst happens, New Zealand is prepared.

Thanks. Since the beginning of this challenge, we’ve sought to focus on boosting supply. It did involve, as the Minister of Finance has referred to, a certain level of risk assessment as to how much should we wear on the Crown balance sheet.

A number of people, both in the media community and the business community, also have concerns about jet fuel. I think that the industry should be very satisfied that we’ve taken the step to boost the amount of diesel, and the Minister of Finance and myself will take advice as to whether or not there should be a similar intervention in respect of jet fuel. We use about 5 million litres a day in jet fuel. We’re conscious that there—I’m told, Prime Minister, that there’s a summer up in the European sector and they might be trying to look for jet fuel as well, but it’s important that Kiwis and those of our community who do depend on ongoing aviation connectivity—we’re not blind or deaf to that request but it has to follow a formidable set of processes where we look at risk assessment, the cost to the Crown.

And obviously, going forward, for as long as the Hormuz Strait remains closed, then this is a challenge. But I would point out to you, other countries are already reducing demand by dint of the fact that they cannot cope with the challenges that are being thrown at them. New

Zealand remains a place where the hands are clean and we have the ability to pay, painful though it may be. So I think this is an overdue addition to what industry asks for, and as I said, in terms of jet fuel, we’ll take advice. Sadly, we don’t have the necessary storage capacity in New Zealand and that may require us to be very innovative as to how, if we do boost jet fuel capacity.

OK. Thank you, Shane. With that, let’s take some questions.

So on the jet fuel bit of it then, where is your thinking? How far along are you on that? You’ve just acknowledged yourself that there’s capacity issues there in terms of storage so if you were to go down that track, how long would it then take to get to that point?

Look, we’re considering a number of options. One option would be around whether there is any additional storage in a spread-out manner that we could secure in the country. Another option is in terms of offshore storage of additional reserves, or another option could be to work with existing jet fuel procurers to see whether they could increase their capacity. So we’re working through options.

But I want to be clear we do have enough jet fuel in the country today. There’s no risk to any disruption to our supply in our conversations with our fuel importers. But as Shane has said, we’re open to continuing to look for opportunities to procure above and beyond our minimum holdings, if necessary.

What is Air New Zealand saying to you, though? I mean, are they in a position where they’re wanting to be able to cut more flights and perhaps move phases? What are they saying behind the scenes to you?

Yeah, look, I mean we’ve had very good engagement with the aviation sector from day one, airports/airlines in this part of the world, as you’d imagine. They all acknowledge that they’re still getting supply of aviation fuel, which is good. They’re obviously dealing with high prices around that, but they’re still getting supply. What we’d be wanting to do is to look for— if there’s optionality for us to procure some extra, we’ll look at that. We’ll take advice on that, and that’s what we’re opening up today.

Prime Minister, you’ve had these assurances from Singapore about supply from there. Are we looking for similar assurances from other suppliers like, say, the South Koreans?

Yeah, you’ve heard the South Koreans say over the weekend that, you know, they plan to continue to supply us. I’ve spoken to the South Korean President, we’ve had other Ministers engaging with their counterparts as well, and, you know, we’re confident. You know, what we’re actually seeing is across the refineries, whether they’re in South Korea or whether they’re in Singapore, they are actually finding alternative sources of crude feedstock. Yes, it’s not coming out of the Gulf in the way that it is, but it is coming out of the US, Canada, Western Africa, Oman, even some parts of South America. So, you know, they are experts at that market of actually trying to find alternative sources of crude and bring it into their refineries. So, you know, they—we remain very confident with the upstream sourcing of crude feedstock into the refineries that we deal with, and we know where that all comes from. But, you know, at this stage, we’re very comfortable with our arrangements with South Korea and Singapore.

I also understand you’ve got a gap in your schedule. Do you want to come on The Platform next Monday?

I’ll be in Singapore, my friend, unfortunately.

On forward shipments, Australia has announced that 58 shipments of fuel are going into June. That’s secured. Obviously, Australia is larger than New Zealand, but we have a single-digit number of confirmed shipments going out that far. Why are they—and I understand that commercial sensitivity is the reason you’re not been sharing maybe as full of a data as you have. Why are they seemingly able to share this commercially sensitive data with so much more clarity than we are?

I’m happy to offer an update on that. So of course we are a smaller country and the nature of shipments is lumpy, so some weeks, some fortnights, there will be more ships on the water than others. However, we recognise that people want more information about forward ship movements and so we have been working with the fuel companies on that and will be in a position to offer you more detailed information later this week.

But I also want to reassure you that we’ve got confirmed orders out to the end of May, as I’ve said before, planned orders well through June as well. OK.

For those at home, sorry, just for those at home around, they’re going to hear “additional diesel” and they’re going to think that’s going to be cheaper. I know you touched on that, but can you just explain to those who are going to the pump, who are getting diesel—it’s more expensive than anything else—just explain to them why it may not affect the cost of it?

This is the backup buffer. It’s like the money in the piggy bank that has the masking tape all over it. It’s only there for if we really, really need it on a rainy day. I appreciate that the price of the pump is high right now and I know that that hurts. That is a direct consequence of what’s happened with the global oil price and the price of diesel internationally, although I do welcome the fact that I’m advised that in the past 14 days, the diesel price on average has dropped around 55 cents a litre, an average decline of around 4 cents a day. I know that will be welcome news to many diesel users. But I appreciate that even at $3.35, which was the average today, it’s still high.

So you’re thinking with the 90 million litres that you’re bringing in, that you’d hold on to it in case things got really bad and then just start releasing quite a lot of it then, rather than kind of drip-feeding it out?

Yeah. So the situation that we are preparing for—a worst case scenario, a low-likelihood but high-impact event—would be if we were having several shipments or more than one large shipment that was significantly delayed or hadn’t been replaced, and we knew we were getting to the point that we were going to have to eat into those reserves in the country, the minimum stockholding obligation, and we were wanting to eke out our reserves for a bit longer so we didn’t get into a position of shortage. If we were trying to stretch out that fuel use, having this extra nine days’ worth of fuel would give us more breathing space while we awaited the extra tankers to come. Because what the fuel companies have told us to expect is, even in a worst-case scenario, they’ll still be able to get alternative fuel supply, it just might take a bit longer to get here than usual, and so we need to cover for that bit longer.

Is that a Cabinet decision for releasing that additional supply? And if so, do you have a—I mean, you’ve sort of just outlined what would cause it, but do you have very clear sort of thresholds for what would need to be met?

Look, that’s a decision that the Ministers involved in the fuel response have been delegated responsibility for, but we will report back to Cabinet on any financial implications before we execute it.

When you talk about insulating the Government from any—you know, the downside risk of lower fuel prices, how do you do that?

Well, that’s very commercially sensitive, and I knew you would ask and I specifically knew Thomas Coughlan would ask and so I went into great detail with our officials.

I said, “Look, I want to explain it”, because it does make sense when it’s explained, but it is very commercially sensitive how we’ve done that. You’ll appreciate Z Energy, through Ampol, have also negotiated a deal with the Australians. They’re sensitive about the different terms in each of the agreements. But essentially, what—the way that we’ve put the deal together limits the Crown’s exposure to the long-term reduction in fuel prices.

Is it a hedging instrument that you’ve also purchased in—

It’s to do with the terms of the deal that we’ve done with Z Energy. Look, I’m conscious that what we are still to do is to execute this deal and I don’t want to sabotage what is a great protection for New Zealand by providing you too much detail and upsetting commercial sensitivity.

In the context of the national fuel plan, can you say what kind of level using this insurance would be, would fall under?

This is what you would use to prevent having to go to fuel allocation. So rather than a situation where people were running out of fuel, you would use this reserve, so this would be to prevent getting into phase three and four.

This will sound like a really simple question but obviously you can’t hold fuel forever and a day. Can you just explain, with Z being in control of that fuel but the Government being able to make decisions around when it’s released, what they’re sort of doing with it in the interim until the Government may choose to release it?

Diesel has a sort of a shelf life of about six to 12 months, if that helps.

So are they basically putting it into stations and then continuing to refill that tank so it’s always got the maximum? It sounds really simple, but can you just explain how that fuel turnover is taking place?

Yeah, so that’s essentially what does happen, yeah, so we maintain the 90 million litres. But obviously, you know, we’re very much focused on getting through to the end of the year with this supply that we’ve got here and releasing it if we need to, if we get into difficulties.

The $20 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund, how long does that—how long does that secure storage at Marsden?

Yeah, so we’ve signed up a deal for several years. Just to remind everyone the capital cost of the recommissioning has been met by Channel and that what we’ve used the majority of the money for is essentially to secure an exclusive lease right and store fuel in there. It’s largely one 90-million-litre tank and a smaller tank, if I’m not mistaken.

Yeah, there’s one small tank and one large one, yeah.

Just to remind everyone, we’ve got about a—we’ve got about a billion litres’ worth of storage capacity in New Zealand and about 700 million of that is located in Marsden Point, and the rest of it is scattered around New Zealand. But this first consignment— who knows, there may be more, but at this stage we’ve sweated bullets to get the first one done—that’s going to be at Marsden Point.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question but, Minister Willis, did you say that Z is going to own the fuel? Where is the risk to the Government balance sheet with that?

So at the point that we want to release the fuel, we then need to in some way cover potentially a difference in cost between how much Z Energy paid for it and how much they’re able to get for it in the market, and so that’s been the basis of the commercial negotiation. If we didn’t end up using the diesel because we never get to this terrible rainy day we’re all trying to avoid, then it would progressively be released into Z Energy’s business-as-usual stocks, at which point, again, the commercial terms of the deal have—we’ve put in place for that.

You say that the Crown will be able to control the—

The release.

—fuel’s release into the market. Nicola, you’ve previously spoken about regions, there might be differences between different regions in New Zealand about how much fuel they have. Would you be able to direct, you know, that fuel goes to this region over this region, to ensure there’s enough across the whole of New Zealand?

We don’t envisage that in the first instance because what we expect the fuel companies and distributors to keep doing is ensuring that fuel is properly distributed across the country. This stock would be used in order to keep that distribution going, so that responsibility sits with the fuel companies and the distributors. What we’re taking on as a responsibility is having additional reserves of fuel to pump into that system.

Prime Minister, are you confident that if you are to make changes to trucking weight limits as kind of forecast in recent days, you would have your coalition partners on board with you? Winston Peters, on his way out of the House today, said that the trucking industry have been trying to do this for the last 30 years, we are not going to go down that pathway and the weight limits are there for good reason, to protect our roads.

Yeah, look, I appreciate there’s lots of different people with their reckons. I’ve heard it from the industry and I’ve heard it from other CEOs even this morning as well. What we’re doing here is we’re just saying, look, there—in the case where we need to actually save fuel and we need to be much more efficient in it, is there dumb regulations that’s sitting in the place that’s getting in the way? There’s trade-offs with all of them, so actually we’re taking all ideas at this point in time. Our team of officials and Ministers are going through this and ultimately looking at what the pros and cons of each of those removals of those regulations could be. Some may make sense. Some may not make sense. But what we want to do is just make sure we’ve got rid of any red tape that’s getting in the way of maximising fuel efficiency.

Is it a breach of Cabinet responsibility for him to essentially say no to those changes before you’ve had a chance to properly consider them?

Well, I think it’s just a bit premature. We clearly—as you heard announced yesterday by Ministers Seymour and Bishop, we’ve got a series of work underway just to say, how do we avoid—how do we improve fuel efficiency? There’s a bunch of ideas coming from the freight guys, from others across the system, as well as our own officials, and so all we’re just—all we’re signalling is we’re taking the bunch of—all that regulation, we’ll look at each and every one of them, we understand there’ll be trade-offs and pros and cons, and we’ll make our decision in due course.

Minister Jones, do you have any reckons, any premature reckons on that, Minister Jones?

Sorry, say again?

Do you have any premature reckons on what the Prime Minister’s just outlined?

No, no, I agree with what the PM has said. I mean, local government and the State at the end of the day have to deal with the impact on—

Roads.

—heavy traffic on our roads, but it’s really important that we keep the fuel flowing. And I’m imagining that a fair bit of freight may even go onto KiwiRail, [Inaudible].

I imagine a lot of freight will go onto KiwiRail [Inaudible] shipping.

So just asking, Minister Jones. You’ve previously been quite concerned about distribution around the regions and had sent out some sort of warnings to the distributors that they needed to be making sure that petrol stations had enough fuel and people in the regions weren’t basically being left without. Are you happy with the way that that has been going? Have there been any other messages sent about doing better, etc.?

Well, the Finance Minister and I specifically asked the officials to reach out to Allied, I think it’s called, and make sure that they’re doing their job, and if they’ve got any problems accessing adequate amounts of fuel because of supply line problems with the importers, for God’s sake, let us know.

Yeah.

Like—I think it’s really important, Jo, to remind everyone this is a high-trust model. This is a just-in-time model. It’s a slightly asymmetric relationship in that the fuel companies do possess great knowledge about their businesses, but the downside is for the Crown where in small cases there may be, in the South Island, a scarcity of fuel at a given point in time. We’ve been assured by the officials that they are on the case with both the distributors, and Gull got a clear message from my good self, with the authority of Nicola: do not play games—

In the allocation.

—where people’s businesses and households’ livelihood is at stake.

The good news is we’ve got eyes and ears on the ground, a network of electorate MPs who, when these issues surface, escalate them very quickly. We escalate them to officials and they’re escalated with the distributors fast.

Have you had a lot of complaints, then?

Look, early on, a couple of weeks ago I was hearing of stockouts in different parts of the country, which was concerning, which is why we sought to understand what was going on.

And that was due to the—that was due to the allocation model at the beginning, as we talked about, but that’s been remedied. And so I would just say compared to what I’ve observed in other markets around the world, actually I think we’ve delivered pretty well and people are pretty reassured. We haven’t seen huge stockpiling or anything, apart from that first week, where there was a little bit. People actually understand there’s plenty of fuel in the system, there’s no need to stockpile, and obviously we’re working with the fuel companies to make sure the allocation policies are right.

OK, team, we’ll take three more questions.

Minister, are you [Inaudible] drinks for the gallery this year?

No.

And are you inviting TVNZ?

No.

OK, second question.

Are you able to estimate how much profit Z Energy will make from this arrangement and how exactly they earn their margin?

No, because that’s commercially sensitive, and what I can assure you is we have sought to limit the exposure to the taxpayer. It’s been a tough negotiation.

Yeah.

Our negotiators have looked into the whites of the eyes of Z Energy and we have driven on a hard bargain, as you’d expect us to do. I note that the Australians also haven’t shared the commercially sensitive details of their arrangements—

That’s right.

—and that’s appropriate.

OK. Sorry. Have you had a question? We’ll go to Glenn.

Can you please explain why Breakfast Show didn’t make the cut for your media review, and were you happy with David Seymour’s performance in your place today?

Oh, well, look, I addressed this issue on Friday. I’ve got nothing much more to add to it, frankly. It’s just, as I said to you—

[Inaudible].

Sorry, as I said to you, we’re wanting to, you know, adjust and reset my media engagements. I’d just say I don’t think there’s anything unusual about that. Different Prime Ministers in the past have done that and certainly, as you well know, compared to other leaders around the world I’m highly accessible to all of you—as evidence, why we’re here.

Can we be really clear? Did that have anything to do with the behaviour of Breakfast itself or of other complaints that the National Party has and other complaints the National Party has had about TVNZ, or was it solely on the basis of “I’m just changing up my interview schedule”?

Look, guys, I’m sorry, this is not what New Zealanders are interested in talking about. You can talk about yourselves, media on media. Actually we have rules and standards in this place and we expect professionalism and we expect that to be upheld. But New Zealanders are very focused on an Indian FTA. They’re actually focused on a fuel crisis and ultimately how this crisis comes to an end in Iran as well. OK, thanks, team. Appreciate your help.