1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: There are calls on the government to start talking realistically

2
00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:05,760
Speaker 1: about the possibility of fuel shortages in New Zealand. The

3
00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:08,160
Speaker 1: government is taking advice on all options in case our

4
00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:10,559
Speaker 1: stocks dry up, and this comes as the country today

5
00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,280
Speaker 1: released six days worth of supply worth of fuel to

6
00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:16,800
Speaker 1: the global market to meet international obligations. Shane Jones is

7
00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,160
Speaker 1: the Associate Energy Minister in charge of fuel security.

8
00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:23,360
Speaker 2: High Shane Greetings, good afternoon.

9
00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:25,320
Speaker 1: Scale of one to ten. How likely is it that

10
00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,120
Speaker 1: we have to ration fuel in some way?

11
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,279
Speaker 2: Well, we've already identified that. One of the interventions that

12
00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:35,000
Speaker 2: we're going to get advice on is demand restraint, which

13
00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:40,400
Speaker 2: actually means ensuring that this situation gets much worse and worse.

14
00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:42,239
Speaker 2: We're going to have to look at how we can

15
00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:45,120
Speaker 2: stretch our supplies out at home. Fortunately, at the moment

16
00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:47,879
Speaker 2: we're still told by the ol companies and the officials

17
00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,519
Speaker 2: there's fifty days both on the water and in the country.

18
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:53,800
Speaker 1: What are your options for demand restraint?

19
00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:59,040
Speaker 2: Well, one thing that we're going to have to look

20
00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:02,160
Speaker 2: at is whether or not we change the characteristics of

21
00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:04,560
Speaker 2: the type of fuel that we bring into New Zealand.

22
00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,080
Speaker 2: That would possibly broaden the sources from which we get

23
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:11,080
Speaker 2: the fuel. I don't want to sound too pointy headed,

24
00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,920
Speaker 2: but fuel has quite exacting characteristics when it comes into

25
00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:18,840
Speaker 2: the country, and now that's one thing that we could

26
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:24,080
Speaker 2: probably find other places to draw fuel from. Number Two,

27
00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,480
Speaker 2: we'll dust off what the options have been in the past.

28
00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,319
Speaker 2: And obviously I had the High Commission from Australia into

29
00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:36,520
Speaker 2: my office yesterday and he and his people and the

30
00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:41,880
Speaker 2: Wellington bureaucrats, along with the Foreign Affairs working very closely

31
00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:45,039
Speaker 2: with the Aussies because we're going to have to hang

32
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,360
Speaker 2: very tight to them in the event that there is

33
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:53,920
Speaker 2: a set of scarcity problems for us, both in Australia

34
00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,720
Speaker 2: and New Zealand. There are closest neighbors, there are closest

35
00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:57,200
Speaker 2: our lives.

36
00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:00,160
Speaker 1: Are you seriously considering Carlo Stay.

37
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:06,680
Speaker 2: Yes, No, it's too early to identify any specific intervention.

38
00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,640
Speaker 2: I mean perhaps there's thing's all over in a week,

39
00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:11,840
Speaker 2: who knows. But are you.

40
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,639
Speaker 1: Taking advice on it if you're not seriously considering it?

41
00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:20,639
Speaker 2: Well, No, Kiwis expect their government to be proactive. Kiwis

42
00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,440
Speaker 2: expect us to deal with the fact that other countries

43
00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 2: are holding their fuel. They're introducing export restrictions, so What

44
00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:32,880
Speaker 2: we need to do is ensure that we've exhaustively looked

45
00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:36,000
Speaker 2: at every option, so if things do deteriorate and we

46
00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,520
Speaker 2: make decisions, they're made on the basis of quality information,

47
00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:41,880
Speaker 2: not some grasshopper attitude.

48
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,959
Speaker 1: Listen have you, I mean, how do you feel about

49
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,720
Speaker 1: the fact that Western Australia has run out of diesel

50
00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:49,399
Speaker 1: in rural areas.

51
00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,359
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, my message to Kiwi's obviously is that look,

52
00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,400
Speaker 2: we do have adequate supplies of fuel, but then I've

53
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 2: got no shortage of other people fearful that if we

54
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,080
Speaker 2: don't have a contingency plan, we'll get caught on the

55
00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,520
Speaker 2: hop Those areas where there has been a run on

56
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:12,320
Speaker 2: fuel are very isolated areas and we don't quite have

57
00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,880
Speaker 2: the same topography or isolations such as Carnaverine and Geralton.

58
00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:19,880
Speaker 1: Okay, half of the oil, half of the fuel that

59
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,440
Speaker 1: we have is apparently still on the water. How sure

60
00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:24,440
Speaker 1: are you those ships are not going to get diverted?

61
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,080
Speaker 2: Well, you ask a damn good question. We rely on

62
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,680
Speaker 2: the quality of the contracts, the enforceability of the contracts

63
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:33,600
Speaker 2: with the oil companies. Are going to remind everyone on

64
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:38,280
Speaker 2: your program, the oil companies move new Zealand to a

65
00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:43,320
Speaker 2: just in time model and the Labor government approved of

66
00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,839
Speaker 2: the closure of the refinery. That's why we are where

67
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,120
Speaker 2: we are. There's three hundred and fifty million liters of

68
00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:54,360
Speaker 2: spare storage capacity that was closed down when the refinery

69
00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,360
Speaker 2: was decommissioned, and keys are going to wake up here

70
00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:00,960
Speaker 2: when we have these challenges of resilience and these decisions

71
00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,840
Speaker 2: that were made and some sort of gratification of New

72
00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,560
Speaker 2: Zealand's climate ideology. These are the costs that we didn't

73
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,520
Speaker 2: see coming, although Winston and I argued against it in

74
00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:11,000
Speaker 2: the past.

75
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:12,960
Speaker 1: Shane Listen, thanks very much for your time as a well.

76
00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:16,080
Speaker 1: Shane Jones, Associate Energy Minister in charge of Fuel Security.

77
00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,880
Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to

78
00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:23,000
Speaker 1: news talks they'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

79
00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:24,800
Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.