Ardern does u-turn on regional fuel taxes

Simon Bridges released:

National Party Leader Simon Bridges has welcomed the Prime Minister’s forced backdown on her regional fuel taxes, and called on her to overturn her excise increases and remove the regional fuel tax imposed on Aucklanders.

“After pressure from the National Party over her Government’s decision to impose more and more new taxes on record petrol prices the Prime Minister has today finally backed down and ruled out rolling the regional fuel tax out beyond Auckland while she is Prime Minister.

“This is in spite of her Government introducing legislation which would have enabled the 11.5 cent per litre regional fuel tax to be rolled out around the country from 2021. It has already been imposed on Aucklanders.

“Fourteen other councils had already started discussions with the Government saying they wanted the tax and will be surprised to hear about the Prime Minister’s backdown today.

This is a big backdown by Ardern. They passed a law specifically to allow them to roll out regional fuel taxes around the country. And now Ardern says no more taxes while I am PM. Well why did they pass the law in the first place?

This shows they are worried by the backlash over increased fuel prices. This may cauterise the wound a bit, but they are still vulnerable as New Zealanders know the Auckland fuel tax has in fact led to price rises over the whole country.