78 councils. 5 million people. The government says that's too many — and has given councils three months to sort it out themselves, or have change imposed on them. Here's the full picture.
Fuel stockholding is how much petrol, diesel, and jet fuel New Zealand has available at any given time — sitting in tanks on shore, or on tankers already making their way here. It is the buffer between what arrives from overseas and what gets burned every day by cars, trucks, farms, planes, and power stations.
Every litre of petrol, diesel, and jet fuel used in New Zealand arrives here by ship from overseas. There is no domestic oil production of any scale. There is no refinery. The fuel that runs New Zealand's cars, trucks, farms, planes, and power stations travels thousands of kilometres across open ocean before it reaches a pump near you.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow strip of water between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world's oceans. At its narrowest point it is just 39 kilometres wide. The actual shipping lanes — two miles in each direction — are narrower still.
Oil prices are the cost of crude oil on the global market — the raw material that gets refined into petrol, diesel, jet fuel, and hundreds of other products we use every day.
Marsden Point was New Zealand's only oil refinery. Located near Whangārei in Northland, it operated from 1964 to 2022 — 58 years of turning imported crude oil into the petrol, diesel and jet fuel that kept New Zealand moving.
Local democracy is how communities have a say in the decisions that affect them most directly — the roads outside their house, the parks their kids use, the rates they pay, the rules about what can be built next door.
The Resource Management Act 1991 — the RMA — is New Zealand’s main environmental and planning law. It governs what can be built where, how land can be used, and what effects on the environment are acceptable.
Local government is the layer of government closest to where you live. While central government in Wellington makes national laws and decisions, local government handles the day-to-day services and infrastructure of your community.
Rates are the main way local councils fund themselves. If you own a property in New Zealand, you pay rates to your local council every year. If you rent, your landlord pays rates — and typically factors that into what they charge you.
The Auckland Supercity is the name given to the 2010 merger of eight separate Auckland councils into one unified body — the Auckland Council. It remains the largest local government amalgamation in New Zealand's history and the closest example of what the government is now proposing for the rest of the country.
Inflation is the rate at which prices rise across the economy over time. When inflation is running at 3 percent, it means that on average things cost 3 percent more than they did a year ago. When it runs at 7 percent — as it did in New Zealand in 2022 — your money is losing purchasing power fast.
Fuel tax is a stack of government charges added to every litre of petrol or diesel sold in New Zealand — before the retailer adds their margin, and before GST goes on top of everything.
The NZD is New Zealand's currency — the New Zealand dollar. Its exchange rate is the price of one NZD in terms of another currency, most importantly the US dollar.
