OPINION: Jacinda Ardern built her political brand on compassion. “Be kind” became the slogan of a prime minister who, at her peak, was lauded as a global moral compass. But behind the photo-ops and warm words came decisions that have plunged New Zealand into its ultimate winter of discontent — saddling the country with monstrous energy bills, if the business you work for survives at all. Families are being forced to choose between paying through the nose or shivering through winter.
In April 2018, Ardern and Energy Minister Megan Woods banned new offshore oil and gas exploration. It was billed as climate leadership, but came with no matching plan to replace that lost domestic supply. New Zealand’s gas reserves were already in decline. From that moment, a supply crunch was inevitable.
Then in April 2022, Labour allowed Refining NZ to shut Marsden Point — our only oil refinery. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Woods let the company’s decision go ahead without intervention, you couldn’t make it up. That move meant we could no longer import crude oil from a range of global suppliers and refine it locally. In 2025, every litre of petrol, diesel, and jet fuel is imported as finished product from a small set of refineries in South Korea, Singapore, and Japan. Those suppliers know we have no alternative and price accordingly. New Zealanders are a captive buyer at the far end of the supply chain.
This wasn’t like COVID. The lockdowns were an unknown — Ardern did what she thought was best at the time, and the consequences only became clear later. But the energy crunch was entirely predictable. You didn’t need hindsight to know that removing domestic production options while adding no large-scale renewable generation would force up prices. Every family is today paying for decisions made in 2018 and 2022.
Now, Energy and Resources Associate Minister Shane Jones is scrambling to reverse the exploration ban — not because it’s fashionable, but because industries are closing, jobs are disappearing, and investors are leaving. The ultimate irony is that, with the public’s short memory, the very parties who engineered this enduring economic decline could be rewarded at the next election for the very mess they created.
Just to be clear, few (sans-Trump) are calling for some glorious return to a fossil fuel free-for-all. But there are industries where gas and oil still make the most sense — for example, as an alternative to shipping in Indonesian coal to keep Huntly running into the next decade. And when the choice is importing oil from thousands of miles away on dirty diesel tankers to fuel the cars and trucks we already have, the “climate purity” argument starts to look less like progress and more like theatre.
Climate ideology without a plan to keep the lights on or prices in check isn’t kindness — it’s cruelty dressed up as virtue. Ideology doesn’t keep homes warm, or businesses open. Long-term planning does — and that’s exactly what New Zealand lost under Ardern.
