The rubber is hitting the road for us here in New Zealand with fuel prices on the up because of the situation in the Middle East. 

The Taxpayers’ Union hasn’t been slow in coming forward, saying the government should be cutting its fuel taxes. Temporarily, anyway. 

It says households shouldn’t be forced to shoulder the full cost of global instability. 

It’s spokesman Jordan Williams is saying that people are already struggling with the cost of living and the government needs to wear some of the burden rather than lumping it all on motorists. 

I get his argument and, more to the point, it’s not just motorists who are impacted. Everyone is impacted because the price of fuel pretty much impacts the price of everything. 

Nevertheless, thank goodness the government hasn’t jumped on the kneejerk reaction bandwagon with this one. With finance minister Nicola Willis saying that won’t be happening. 

Which makes perfect sense. For several reasons. 

The main one being timing. 

We’re only a week or so into this war and who knows what’s going to be happening this time next week or two weeks from now. 

And that’s the job of a government in times like these. Don’t panic and see where things go. 

Especially, when there’s the potential for the G7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States - to release some of the fuel they keep up their sleeve for times like these. 

They decided overnight that that doesn’t need to happen right now. But they’re due to have another think about later this week. 

The Automobile Association’s principal policy adviser terry Collins has been warning that petrol prices could get close to $4 a litre. 

I think the likelihood of that has diminished and good on the government for holding its nerve. 

Tell that to Labour leader Chris Hipkins, though. 

He says back in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, his government heard about people not being able to afford the petrol they needed to get to work. 

At that point, a litre of petrol cost $3. 

Chris Hipkins says: “Once fuel inflation reached that point where people couldn’t afford to go to work, because they couldn’t afford to fill up the car, we made the decision at that point that the immediate priority was providing support to New Zealand households.” 

And he wants to see the same thing happen again. 

I don’t - and I think the government’s made the right move. 

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