MBIE's leadership should front up to explain fuel supply information shambles

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on MBIE leadership to front up and explain the extraordinary events of the last 24 hours which saw Wednesday’s fuel supply update (accurate as of last Sunday) changed three times over the course of yesterday.

“Right now, the supply chain of fuel is the most important economic statistic in the country," says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf. "Every business leader and household is relying on up-to-date, accurate information to make informed decisions."

“It is totally unacceptable that MBIE can claim to have all the knowledge and say ‘trust us’, but then be changing it literally hour to hour. How can anyone trust that?”

“Our FuelClock.nz uses MBIE data but matches it to real-world shipping trackers. It appears that the original 'clarification' yesterday by MBIE either double-counted the ship Nicola Willis stood in front of on Sunday, or had invented a 'ghost ship' that doesn't exist on shipping logs."

"We could figure that out - which is why we stuck by the FuelClock.nz information. But apparently, MBIE had no quality control or audit before it misled the public. What resulted was a shambles.”

“Unless it was a deliberate PR strategy for misleading headlines to falsely reassure the public there is more diesel in the country than there actually is, yesterday’s events calls for accountability and heads to roll."

"Rather than making snarky comments in the media about third party tools like ours - which ironically, proved to be more reliable than the MBIE website - MBIE should be working with businesses, communities and media organisations to ensure the public are being properly furnished with accurate and timely information."

"MBIE operates under 20 ministers, making accountability grey. But if MBIE's leaders are doing their job, they ought to front up today to explain what is going on, and assure the public can have confidence in its numbers."