Agenda: Fuel crisis deepens as Government moves to twice weekly updates

Monday, 23 March 2026

Finance Minister Nicola Willis will join Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for post-Cabinet this week.

ANALYSIS: The fuel crisis brought on by the Iran war is still running the show in Wellington as Parliament returns from a one-week recess.

All eyes will be on the Government response to the crisis ‒ which has so far included a lot of reassurances and a new ministerial oversight group but no concrete action.

Monday: Nicola Willis joins post-Cabinet press conference

Cabinet will meet on Monday as usual.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who is leading the ministerial group responding to the crisis, will join Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for his post-Cabinet press conference about 4pm.

She will announce that the Government is moving to more regular updates on the fuel stocks in the country ‒ with updates every Monday and Wednesday instead of just every Wednesday.

Willis said on Sunday the Government still had seven weeks of supply in the country.

It is likely she will be asked about the support package the Government is currently working on to help those hit the hardest ‒ indeed, she may even announce details of it.

It is likely Chris Hipkins and his caucus will again be asked about a series of claims made by his ex-wife, which he denies.

Also on Monday, the Justice select committee spends the day hearing from individual submitters on the Arms Bill — the Government's overhaul of New Zealand's firearms laws.

The Greens will also be looking to promote a series of measures they are pushing the Government to take to immediately deal with the fuel crisis ‒ such as making public transport free and giving a grant to low income rural people unable to use public transport.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop is also announcing that installing EV chargers will be a permitted activity under the Resource Management Act ‒ making it easier for people to do this.

Tuesday — Parliament returns

Parliament gets going properly on Tuesday with caucus meetings in the morning and the House itself.

Labour’s caucus run is likely to feature some questions about the claims made by Hipkins ex-wife, which he has rejected. The claims are not criminal in nature.

Parliament sits from 2pm and will be debating the first reading of the Government’s Policing Amendment Bill, which gives police greater powers to close roads and “reaffirms” police powers to take photos of the public in public places.

But before that it is Question Time, which will likely skew towards what the Government is doing to help people hit by high fuel prices.

Wednesday — Fuel update

The second fuel briefing of the week lands on Wednesday ‒ usually in the early afternoon. Any movement in the numbers since Monday's update will draw scrutiny.

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere. It is still not quite clear if she will re-enter the party.

At 3pm the Reserve Bank releases new residential mortgage lending data for February. This will be of interest but will not tell us anything about how the Iran War might be impacting real estate market sentiment.

The Education and Workforce select committee runs a full-day hearing on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill from 8am. Minister Brooke van Velden appears first at 8.30am before a crowded list of submitters: the PSA, E tū, Stand With Pike, Federated Farmers, Retail NZ, Engineering New Zealand and others. The bill has attracted strong opposition from unions, who argue it rolls back protections hard-won after Pike River.

Friday — Consumer confidence

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey lands at 10am. The previous read was 100.1 — right on the neutral line between optimism and pessimism. That was before fuel costs rocketed up. This week's figure will be one of the first hard reads on how households are processing the crisis.

Watching brief: TPM and Hipkins fallout

Hipkins has rejected a series of claims made by his ex-wife on Facebook last week, and the story has largely fallen from the headlines. But social media means probably hundreds of thousands have seen the claims anyway. If any polls come out this week, they will allow us to work out what impact this might have had on Labour’s standing.

Another thing to watch is the delicate dance between Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Te Pāti Māori. Kapa-Kingi has now won a court case against the party, with a finding that her expulsion was unlawful. But she’s keen on an apology before actually re-entering the party fully.