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"WHEN THE PETROL TANKER RUNS DRY: How a White Supremacist Neoliberal Government Left Māori at the Bottom of the Fuel Queue" - 14 March 2026
When the government's fuel emergency plan guarantees petrol to Corrections — but doesn't mention Māori once.
New Zealand is at Level 1 of its National Fuel Plan. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. We have 21 days of physical diesel on soil. The rest is paper.
And somewhere in the fine print of a "relatively generic" emergency document, the Crown has encoded its hierarchy one more time: Defence gets fuel. Corrections gets fuel. The prison system that incarcerates Māori men at rates the world calls a crisis — gets guaranteed supply.
The kuia in Ruātoria with no public transport, the whānau in Ōpōtiki already spending $150 a week on fuel just to reach work and the doctor — they are not "critical customers."
They never are.
Shane Jones has been Resources Minister for seventeen months. The 90-day physical reserve is scheduled for 2028. He's too busy fast-tracking drilling on Māori whenua to build a buffer for Māori communities.
The full essay is live. Read it. Share it. This voice only stays on because you keep it fuelled.
