NZ Engine – Page 65

March 31, 2026

No change in reports of fuel offending

Source: New Zealand Police

Statement in the name of Tusha Penny, Assistant Commissioner Road Policing and District Support:

We understand that the global fuel situation is causing people to feel nervous and some are concerned it could lead to an increase in fuel theft and related crime.

Nationally, Police is watching closely for any trends around fuel theft and associated offences.

At this stage, it is too early to determine any notable change in offending.

Police will remain visible in our communities and will respond to any incidents as they arise.

We know many people feel more reassured if they know what steps they can take to help keep themselves and their property safe. Prevention advice is provided below.

For agricultural communities and businesses

The existing information in the joint crime prevention guide between Police, FMG, and Federated Farmers is below and at: fmg-rural-crime-prevention-advice-guide.pdf

• Park vehicles with fuel caps close to the wall or another vehicle to restrict access to fuel tanks.

• Try to keep fuel out of sight, and ensure fuel tanks are secured and locked to restrict theft and tampering.

• Install security lighting that lights up fuel tanks and fuelling areas.

• Keep an inventory of fuel consumption so any thefts can be identified quickly.

• Install fuel tank locking devices on all petrol and diesel tanks on your property.

Residential vehicles

Many modern cars have anti-siphoning techniques installed, but other ways to minimise risk of fuel theft or siphoning are:

• Keep your car locked in a garage. If you can’t park your car in a garage then park it on your property with the fuel cap close to the wall or another vehicle to restrict access.

• Have security/sensor lighting on around your car if possible.

• If you have to park your car on the road, then try to park it in a well-lit location.

• Use a car alarm.

Petrol stations and retailers

Police has been engaging with petrol stations and there has been no discernible change in crime reporting at this stage, and our reporting also backs that up. For retailers, Police recommends the below prevention measures:

• Use pre-pay or pump pre-authorisation during times of elevated risk

• Have staff maintain strong visibility on the forecourt

• Check all tank and fill-point access to ensure covers, storage zones, and restricted areas are secure and locked at all times.

• Review and test CCTV coverage, ensuring pumps, entrances/exits, and tank access points are clearly recorded.

• Ensure lighting is bright and fully operational across the forecourt, storage areas, and rear-of-site access points.

• Engage regular security patrols, especially overnight, to reinforce site visibility and deter offending.

• Report all suspicious behaviour or incidents to Police: 105 or 105.police.govt.nz for non-urgent matters; or 111 for emergency situations that are happening now.

ENDS

Issued by the Police Media Centre

March 31, 2026

Live: Deputy PM David Seymour on New Zealand’s fuel response

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Deputy Prime Minister is pointing to parts of the Covid-19 pandemic response the government will avoid in navigating potential fuel shortages, saying “our long-term future must not be eroded by short-term political theatrics”.

David Seymour, who was highly critical of parts of the previous government’s pandemic response, spoke to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday morning about “the event affecting every part of business right now”.

He said there was no point pretending the conflict in Iran was “abstract or somebody else’s problem” given the impact it had on an “isolated island nation like ours”.

He referenced current fuel stocks as being robust, and said “if, and only if, there is a risk of running out, would we go to demand-side restrictions”.

Seymour then outlined five lessons to learn from the Covid period, saying it would be “mad to ignore a live experiment in politics and policy during a scary global situation” given the country was facing another global event that “could be scary”.

David Seymour. RNZ / Mark Papalii

1. Avoid the time trap

He said the first and most important lesson was not to let the situation “warp time”.

He said during Covid, the daily press conferences made “24 hours seem like a year” and the “first 24 minutes we spent waiting to hear the day’s figures felt like a month”. He also said the fiscal situation was the “most obvious time warp victim”.

To date during the current global situation, he said the financial support announced by the government in response to the current crisis was targeted, timely, temporary and funded.

2. Balancing human needs

Seymour said he was still astonished at how quickly education was “glossed over” during Covid.

“How educated the population is will trump any other variable across a generation. But, in the Covid time trap we abandoned it,” he said.

Seymour said he did not think students should be learning from home because of the fuel crisis, “because we cannot afford to put education back at the bottom of the totem pole after working so hard to get students back at school”.

He said education would not be sacrificed if the government needed to move to demand-side rationing.

3. Do it with, not to, the people

Seymour said the Covid response “took on its own momentum” and by the end of 2021, “we’d been in a state of crisis management for 18 months”.

“Many others felt the response was being done to rather than with them,” he said.

That was why the current government had been working “double time” behind the scenes to “keep fuel supply up and be ready to manage demand as a last resort”.

“Rather than jumping to the podium, we are quietly making plans we hope to never use.”

He also encouraged businesses to come directly to the Ministry for Regulation with suggestions for where regulations could be relaxed.

4. Remember we’re all human, all New Zealanders

He said when it came to democracy, the Covid response was a lesson in “what not to do”.

“People accepted the suspension of democracy and the rule of law so easily.”

He said any move to ration demand or limit normal activity would affect millions of New Zealanders, so people were entitled to know the rules and legal basis for them.

“Otherwise, you risk ignoring the fourth lesson, and people feel they haven’t been listened to. That’s when you get riots on the lawns of Parliament.”

5. Learn from the world, and don’t reinvent the wheel

He said New Zealand’s isolation was a big factor in the current fuel situation, similar to Covid.

“Then, we had several weeks’ notice as each variant crawled across the globe. Today, we’re tracing back ships coming to Marsden Point from Korean and Singaporean refineries, and then the ships going to those refineries.”

He said if the government could see what was coming, it could take time to prepare, and watch what others did to plan New Zealand’s response.

“We should never be too proud to learn from another country. We’re pretty good, but we don’t have a monopoly on wisdom.”

He concluded these lessons mattered because the government could not let “today’s crisis erode our country’s future”.

“Fiscal discipline is what stops the first shock being followed by a second one.

“So, when we say do not take your eye off the fiscals, we are not changing the subject,” he said.

He said with “cool heads” the government could respond to fuel shortages from the war without committing the “knee-jerk mistakes made during Covid”.

“We cannot prevent every external shock. But we can make sure New Zealand responds with fiscal discipline and common sense.”

Watch David Seymour’s full speech in the player above.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

March 31, 2026

Chiefs lock Josh Lord aims for global events as he re-signs with NZ Rugby

Source: Radio New Zealand

All Black Josh Lord www.photosport.nz

Chiefs lock Josh Lord has a couple of big international events on his radar which helped in his decision to stay in New Zealand.

Lord has extended his contract with New Zealand Rugby, the Chiefs and Taranaki through to the end of 2029.

The 25-year-old second rower said it was an easy decision.

“It’s a big few years coming up with the All Blacks, we have the South African tour, the World Cup and the Lions as well,” Lord said.

“And Hamilton, the Chiefs and Taranaki are home. This is where I’ve had the opportunity to grow and get better as a person. Four more years here is going to be good for my family and my footy.”

Lord debuted for the Chiefs in 2021 and became an All Black the same year with a Test debut against the USA.

Josh Lord of Taranaki. Kerry Marshall / www.photosport.nz

An ACL injury ruined his 2022, but returned the following year to play Super Rugby and for the All Blacks.

He has played 12 Tests, 37 games for the Chiefs and 34 games for Taranaki since his provincial debut in 2019.

Chiefs head coach Jono Gibbes said it was terrific to have Lord re-commit to the club as he has a promising future.

“He is a player with a great range of skills and with his physical abilities has shown that he is comfortable at the international level. To have someone like him in our team for the upcoming seasons is exciting. His was an important signature for us and our region.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

March 31, 2026

The strategically-placed aid game

Source: Radio New Zealand

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Tonga’s Prime Minister Lord Fatafehi Fakafanua meet a drug sniffing dog during a police and transnational crime event in Nuku’alofa. The Pacific Detector Dog Programme is a recipient of NZ foreign aid. Ben Strang/ AFP

Giving aid to shore up your strategic position in the world isn’t the way to go about it, says an expert – because your aid won’t help if you’re not trying to help

If New Zealand’s foreign aid programme focused only on need, most of our money would go to sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, the lion’s share goes to the Pacific.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, according to foreign aid expert Terence Wood, but it’s not purely based on largesse, either.

“Geo-strategic thinking is starting to motivate where we focus our aid and that’s just not a good driving force for aid-giving, you really want to be thinking about need, not who you perceive your threats to be,” says Wood.

“If you want to give aid effectively you really need to prioritise it based on the needs of developing countries and not your own geo-strategic preoccupations. Your aid won’t help if you’re not trying to help. And once upon a time New Zealand had pretty good motivations for giving its aid … its aid was more likely to help .. [but] the new cold war with China in the Pacific is undermining the quality of our aid, and that’s quite depressing.”

In the case of aid sent to the Pacific, “there are both good and bad reasons” for doing so.

“The good reason is that we have strong historical ties with the Pacific, or some Pacific countries, and then also it’s just kind of good aid practice to specialise in one part of the world. If you don’t spread yourself too thin you can build up country or regional expertise.

“The bad reason is that we are increasingly preoccupied with China’s presence in the Pacific.”

And it’s not just governments’ reasons for aid spending that are changing. Increasingly, countries are reducing their aid and backing out of commitments.

“Globally [the World Food Programme] had a 40 percent cut in our funding in 2025, and that’s massive. We were at 10 billion and we are now at about six billion. So it is a collective trend as opposed to an individual one,” says Samir Wanmali, the World Food Programme’s regional director for Asia and the Pacific region.

Much has been reported on the US dropping out of commitments, but Wanmali says globally, there’s been a “progressive reduction” in funding from OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries, most notably from Europe.

He puts some of that down to post-covid budgets, and also to the war in Ukraine.

“I should also note that New Zealand and Australia have actually maintained your funding, so you have not reduced.”

But that’s funding to WFP – which is only a small part of the picture.

A report released last October by the Australian foreign think tank The Lowy Institute painted a grim picture. It said that over the next two years, New Zealand is expected to reduce foreign aid funding by about 35 percent.

Aid contributions are generally measured compared to the size of an economy, in a metric called the ODA over GNI (official development assistance over gross national income.)

“Generosity should really be measured compared to what you’re able to give,” says Wood.

“New Zealand’s never been a particularly generous aid donor.

“It’s around the median of OECD countries but it’s not particularly good and it’s also going to fall, as our aid budget falls, we’re going to end up looking worse on that metric.”

The same report said that Australia is filling the gap, making up about half of the funding to the Pacific region.

But Wood says that Australia’s not doing so well either.

“Australia gives a lot more aid than us in an absolute sense because it’s got a much larger economy but on the ODA over GNI metric it actually scores quite a lot worse. So they are more tight fisted than us – at least at present – we may overtake them in the race to the bottom though.”

Wood says that countries – including New Zealand – sometimes manipulate the figures.

“Often countries like New Zealand really are trying to cook the books.”

He says climate change is considered a ‘cross-cutting’ issue, and some aid can be claimed as helping countries adapt to climate change.

“It’s that type of aid where an awful lot of greenwashing goes on.

“So the New Zealand government will claim that all sorts of things that have really got very little relationship to helping countries adapt to climate change are in some way related to that.

“When we are presenting at international fora and so on we want to seem like a country that is concerned with these things but we don’t want to fork out any extra money.”

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

March 31, 2026

Cricket: Black Caps welcome back three pace bowlers for tour of Bangladesh

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand bowler Will O’Rourke Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

Canterbury pace bowler Will O’Rourke returns to the Black Caps’ white-ball set-up for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh but his aim is to be playing test cricket again.

O’Rourke’s last game was for New Zealand against Zimbabwe in a test in Bulawayo in late July last year when he suffered a back stress fracture.

The 24-year-old has been named in a 15-player squad for the three ODI and three T20I series in April.

Also returning from injuries are fellow pace bowlers Matt Fisher and Blair Tickner.

O’Rourke will play the three ODIs, Fisher (shin) returns for the T20Is, and Tickner (ankle) has been named in both squads.

O’Rourke, who has played 11 tests since his debut in 2024, is hoping to get to England for the test series in July and the test series in Australia next summer.

“I obviously love the test cricket stuff, it is special to be a part of the test group,” O’Rourke said.

“It is so tough to win test games so we put a high price on that.”

He said the tour of Bangladesh will help.

“Put a decent performance out in Bangladesh and hopefully put my name forward for England.”

Head coach Rob Walter said it was pleasing to see the return of several players.

“With the amount of cricket being played in the modern game, having depth in our bowling stocks is key. Having players of this quality come back is great for our side.”

Off-spinning allrounder Dean Foxcroft has earned his recall to the white-ball side since his most recent T20I cap in April 2024.

Test captain Tom Latham will lead the side, with regular white-ball captain Mitch Santner unavailable due to his IPL commitments.

Black Caps ODI Squad to Bangladesh

Tom Latham (C) – Canterbury
Muhammad Abbas – Wellington Firebirds
Adithya Ashok – Auckland Aces
Kristian Clarke – Northern Districts
Josh Clarkson – Central Stags
Dane Cleaver – Central Stags
Dean Foxcroft – Central Stags
Nick Kelly – Wellington Firebirds
Jayden Lennox – Central Stags
Henry Nicholls – Canterbury
Will O’Rourke – Canterbury
Ben Sears – Wellington Firebirds
Nathan Smith – Wellington Firebirds
Blair Tickner – Central Stags
Will Young – Central Stags

Black Caps T20I Squad to Bangladesh

Tom Latham (C) – Canterbury
Katene Clarke – Northern Brave
Kristian Clarke – Northern Brave
Josh Clarkson – Central Stags
Dane Cleaver – Central Stags
Matt Fisher – Northern Brave
Dean Foxcroft – Central Stags
Bevon Jacobs – Auckland Aces
Nick Kelly – Wellington Firebirds
Jayden Lennox* – Central Stags
Tim Robinson – Wellington Firebirds
Ben Sears – Wellington Firebirds
Nathan Smith – Wellington Firebirds
Ish Sodhi – Canterbury Kings
Blair Tickner – Central Stags

*Potential format debut

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

March 31, 2026

Fuel industry welcomes government’s moves to increase capacity, says it won’t help overnight

Source: Radio New Zealand

Waitomo fuel chief executive Simon Parham. Supplied / Waitomo

Fuel industry leaders are welcoming the government’s moves to increase fuel capacity, but say while it will help with long-term concerns price spikes are a bigger worry.

With the fuel crisis in its fifth week, the government is moving to shore up storage as an insurance policy in case of supply line failures by announcing plans to access more supply as well as getting more storage tanks into service.

“While fuel importers do continue to indicate confidence in near-future orders and while they are already exploring alternatives to Asia as a source of fuel supply, we believe that some residual risk remains,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.

She said Cabinet had agreed to explore additional options to guard against the risk of disrupted fuel supply, and was now “actively seeking proposals for New Zealand refined fuel imports on arrangements that would support additional purchase of stocks through to June”.

The government was assessing a series of unsolicited proposals from businesses to help increase supply, including to trade New Zealand’s access to fuel types the country was unable to use – like crude oil, which would need to be refined – for types it could.

On the fuel storage front, Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones confirmed officials were exploring two proposals, including to get some of the unused storage capacity at Marsden Point operating again after the former refinery was downsized to an import-only terminal.

Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones (L) and Finance Minister Nicola Willis give an update on the fuel situation on 27 March. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Waitomo fuel chief executive Simon Parham told RNZ more storage would help in the long-term, but would not bring prices down.

“Through the April, May and even into the June window, stock seems to be on the water, there’s been no cargoes cancelled and no ships turned around, so supply looks like it’s steady but it seems to me they want that little extra insurance.

“Looking at extra storage options in New Zealand is also the right thing to do but we’ve just all got to be realistic that that will come at a cost and someone’s got to pay for it.

“Extra storage here, it won’t help with the cost, it just gives us that little bit more resilience in the long term should these supply shocks happen again.”

Automobile Association fuel spokesperson Terry Collins said more capacity would take time and money to build, and ensuring consistent supply needed to be the priority, with the main risks closely linked to what happens in Iran.

“Channel infrastructure, which was a part of the old refinery, has got additional storage, they’ve offered it to the government, but there’s a lag between getting it ready and the immediacy of what’s happening internationally.

“What we could see, possibly, is in a very short period of time spikes and pressure on fuel [prices] coming in here that we do not have time to address by building or refurbishing storage.

“Really it’s about can we get enough to keep what we’ve got going, now.”

He said the threat of further escalation was making markets nervous.

Automobile Association fuel spokesperson Terry Collins said more capacity would take time and money to build. RNZ / Paris Ibell

Hoarding leading to shortages

The government again repeated its warning that “minor hoarding” was leading to shortages at service stations in some regions, including Ōpōtiki, Southland and Nelson.

AA’s Terry Collins said fear of losing out was part of the problem.

“Because of their fear, they think about ‘oh, I’m in an area this could happen’ and by their actions it makes it a self-perpetuating action.”

Waitomo’s Simon Parham said suppliers were doing their best.

“We’re always managing our forecasts, one month, two months, even six months out … that’s what we do day in, day out to make sure products get to service stations,” he said.

“We have seen that increase in demand, admittedly it’s starting to taper off a bit now because that demand has been pulled forward and we’re starting to see a lag – and also prices doing what price does when it gets too high, it causes demand destruction.

“There’s plenty of product there, but it’s not always in the places where you need it.”

He said the most useful regulations for the government to cut would be around heavy-vehicle permits.

“You have to apply on an individual truck and an individual route basis, and what that means is it’s admin-heavy, it takes two to three weeks to get this all approved, and so it really reduces your flexibility in the system.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

March 31, 2026

Fuel industry welcomes government’s moves to increase capacity, say it won’t help overnight