New Zealand is facing a fuel supply crisis amid escalating Middle East conflict, and the Green Party has just thrown Prime Minister Christopher Luxon a political lifeline—but only if he's willing to take it.
The Greens have offered their 15 parliamentary votes to give National a working majority of 63 to pass emergency relief legislation. But there's a catch, mate. Actually, several catches.
Green co-leader Marama Davidson laid out a three-month crisis package that includes free public transport nationwide, direct relief payments for low-income and rural residents, expanded school bus eligibility, restored Total Mobility Scheme funding, increased mileage rates for care workers, and—here's the kicker—a windfall profits tax on industries benefiting from the geopolitical crisis.
In exchange, the Greens want National to abandon "expensive, low-value projects" like the Roads of National Significance programme and a proposed LNG terminal. It's classic Green positioning: use a crisis to push through both immediate relief and longer-term climate policy.
"If they care about communities... they would take up our offer," Davidson said, criticising the government for planning to help only wage earners while leaving behind superannuitants and rural New Zealanders.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis acknowledged fuel costs are biting—"It's expensive right now"—but dismissed blanket fuel tax cuts in favour of targeted support to low-to-middle-income households. The Prime Minister's office hadn't responded to the Green offer at the time of reporting.
Here's the political calculation: National could pass something on its own with coalition partners ACT and New Zealand First, but that requires keeping both happy. The Greens' offer provides an alternative path—if Luxon is willing to accept policy concessions from the opposition.
Transport costs are surging as fuel supply chains tighten. The crisis is real, and New Zealanders are feeling it at the pump and in their grocery bills. Whether National can craft a response that actually helps without alienating its base—or whether it takes the Greens' deal—will define how voters remember this government's crisis management.
