{"id":422507,"date":"2026-05-11T16:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422507\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:28:16","slug":"possible-fuel-purchase-limits-under-most-extreme-alert-level-phase-not-yet-known","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422507\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible fuel purchase limits under most extreme alert level phase not yet known"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PrimePrime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke at his post-Cabinet press conference on Monday. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n

New Zealand was currently in phase one, where no restrictions were in place. A shift to phase two would be made if a short-term fuel supply disruption over a couple of weeks was realised, leading to the Government encouraging sensible fuel use. <\/p>\n

Phase three would be enacted amid a months-long disruption. Willis, who has been leading the Government\u2019s fuel crisis response, said the Government had changed its view and opted not to impose restrictions at this level, instead focusing on using the country\u2019s fuel reserves and establishing voluntary fuel use restrictions. <\/p>\n

At phase four, which would be prompted by a sustained disruption to the flow of critical goods and services, fuel consumers would be split into four groups: <\/p>\n

Critical users: priority and uncapped access for emergency services, health, schools, courts, money services and lifeline utilities.Food and freight: uncapped access to fuel, subject to demand reduction requirements based on fuel\u2011saving plans.Commercial and community users: same access as food and freight, but higher savings targets in their fuel-saving plans.General public: transaction limits imposed to reduce overall fuel use. <\/p>\n

Willis couldn\u2019t state what purchase limit would be imposed at phase four, saying it was dependent on the extent of necessary reduction. <\/p>\n

She acknowledged \u201cspot fines\u201d as well as auditing or compliance checks \u2013 likely run through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment \u2013 could be utilised if people were purchasing excessive levels of fuel. <\/p>\n

However, Willis was optimistic New Zealanders would \u201cdo the right thing\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to be pragmatic and actually if we\u2019re in phase four and the whole world has had a massive disruption in the availability of fuel, we would be asking New Zealanders to apply common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Resources Minister Shane Jones at the post-Cabinet press conference at Parliament. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n

She noted there could be exceptions made to account for fuel access barriers for rural communities, but didn\u2019t provide further detail. <\/p>\n

Willis added fuel consumption would naturally decrease as the price escalated. <\/p>\n

Tagged on to almost every statement and response from Willis, Luxon and Jones was their insistence that New Zealand reaching phase four was \u201chighly unlikely\u201d; a term, or a variation of it, that was used upwards of a dozen times throughout Monday\u2019s press conference. <\/p>\n

Willis indicated the Government\u2019s modelling, which she accepted was about as reliable as the Middle East conflict was predictable, put the odds of New Zealand going to phase four as a single-digit probability. <\/p>\n

Labour leader Chris Hipkins welcomed further detail from the Government but criticised its fuel plan by characterising its phases as \u201cdo nothing, do nothing, do not very much, panic\u201d.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged it was unlikely New Zealand would reach phase four but felt the Government\u2019s high-trust model was unrealistic. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do, it will be panic because it is simply not credible what they\u2019re saying that it should all just work on goodwill. That\u2019s not a realistic plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke at his post-Cabinet press conference on Monday. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell New Zealand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[41242,42574,10712,28829,545,2678,266,56387,33450,25449,53946,3025,111,43,139,5006,69,45642,6744,2170,17398,3109,13673,28160,2687,40249,8238,6923,6730,9184],"class_list":["post-422507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alert","tag-caps","tag-claiming","tag-depends","tag-extreme","tag-fuel","tag-government","tag-isnt","tag-known","tag-level","tag-limits","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-phase","tag-place","tag-plan","tag-possible","tag-public","tag-purchase","tag-reduction","tag-saying","tag-seeking","tag-under","tag-what","tag-would","tag-yet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}