The government’s fossil fuel folly

The following is an op-ed I wrote which ran in The Post on April 7th 2026.

It’s not often a government’s chickens come home to roost so quickly, let alone within a single term. But here we are. 

Fuel supplies are strangled by a war halfway across the world, revealing the folly of a system so reliant on fossil fuels. The impacts will linger for years, even if the war ended tomorrow, and be felt by all of us.

We’d be in a less fragile position, if not for Simeon Brown’s 2024 Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). In one ideological sweep, Brown cut all new funding for walking and cycling, ending a pipeline of small, impactful projects, and effectively banned multi-modal transport funding for essentials like footpaths, cycleways, and bus shelters.

The GPS also funnels billions towards gold-plated highways, the Roads of National Significance Programme (RoNS). Already unaffordable – and antithetical towards New Zealand’s true infrastructure needs (as reiterated by the Infrastructure Commission’s National Infrastructure Plan) – the RoNS are now completely unjustifiable, especially with the fuel crisis sending construction costs skyrocketing. 

Incredibly, the government will likely push ahead with the most developed of the RoNS mega-projects, the $4bn Warkworth to Te Hana expressway – which NZTA’s measures show won’t be needed until the 2040’s. Yet the government aims to sign a Public Private Partnership (PPP) by July this year. The exact numbers are hidden, but after decades of PPP repayments, the ultimate cost to us, the public, is potentially triple the printed price – a $12bn sticker shock. 

At minimum, this one road requires a 12c a litre increase in fuel tax next year, and further increases to follow. And the RoNS programme is sucking resources and workforce away from what the regions really need: road safety upgrades, climate-resilient infrastructure, and regional rail.

Another Brown brainwave was blanket speed increases, which sit starkly at odds with the evidence that reducing speeds saves fuel. Communities lost hard-won safe speeds around schools and in neighbourhoods, including over a thousand streets in Auckland. Safer speeds would let more of us walk, cycle and cross the road to catch a bus, but are currently ruled out by Brown’s 2024 Speed Rule.  

How about public transport? This government increased fare prices by obliging local authorities to recover a higher proportion of operating expenses, and canned free fares for kids and half-price fares for under 25’s.

As for EVs, they scrapped the Clean Car Discount, which if kept would have meant at least 30,000 extra EVs on the road. They watered down Clean Car Standards, and are floating scrapping them entirely, and applied disproportionately high Road User Charges to EVs. The total effect: making fossil fuel vehicles cheaper, and EVs less so.

Don’t forget this government also scrapped the Climate Emergency Response Fund, which was being used to mitigate emissions and build resilience for climate change. It included funding for public transport, walking, and cycling through the Transport Choices programme. All that funding was scrapped, for one-off tax cuts.

National has even struggled to manifest its campaign promise of 10,000 EV chargers by 2030, spending no more than the previous government allocated in 2023. Last week, ministers hurriedly reannounced a watered down version of the policy; too little, too late.

All up, this government’s choices have left New Zealand woefully unprepared for the current crisis, and it’s showing little impetus to pivot away from dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Despite all of the above, there has been some local progress. 

Auckland is well ahead of its goal of electrifying all buses by 2030, with over 30% of buses now electric instead of diesel. Later this year the City Rail Link will open, unleashing the wider potential of the rail network. And with more Aucklanders experiencing the joys (and savings) of riding bikes, the cycleway network – although decades late – is expanding.

Local government can demonstrate leadership, but relies on central government to resource urgent actions. The opportunity is huge. Four out of five New Zealanders live in cities and towns: quickly expanding their travel choices will save fuel for those who need it most.

Easy actions include making public transport cheaper (or free) and ramping up timetables, to give people all-day alternatives to driving. Reducing speeds and creating pop-up protected cycleways will make it safe to bike to work, the shops, and school. 

Longer term, the logical thing is to invest far more into public transport, walking, cycling, and rail, and rapidly electrify our vehicle fleet. Not only will this save us money and shield us from fuel shocks, it gives us cleaner air, safer streets, less congestion, and far more freedom of choice. What’s not to like?

As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best time is today.

The same is true of throwing off the shackles of fossil fuels.

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