Protest in Auckland’s Victoria Park against fuel taxes

Source: Radio New Zealand

Protesters are calling for the government to halve the fuel excise tax and Road User Charges (RUCs), but the transport minister says to do so would take funding away from roading.

Advocacy group Fuel Tax Protest NZ earlier told media it had coordinated more than 40 protests across the country on Saturday.

In a Saturday evening video on social media, Fuel Tax Protest NZ national spokesperson Phil Barrett said there had been protests at more than 50 locations across the country, but RNZ was unable to verify that number.

An RNZ reporter found a handful of people gathered at one of the protests, at the Auckland’s Victoria Park.

The group also wants fuel cost relief for essential services and more transparency about where money from fuel taxes is spent.

Stats NZ data shows the cost of petrol has increased 33.6 percent in the two months since February, while diesel skyrocketed by 94.9 percent.

To support families struggling with the fuel crisis, the government has so far temporarily boosted the in-work tax credit to $50 a week for about 143,000 lower-income families, while also expanding eligibility to a further 14,000 families to receive the credit at a reduced rate.

It has also temporarily increased mileage rates by 30 percent for home and community support workers.

However the government has ruled out cutting fuel excise and RUCs.

A spokesperson at the Victoria Park protest told RNZ that support was not enough: “I haven’t seen anybody come out and be glad about it.”

Plans to incrementally increase fuel taxes from next year showed the government was out of touch with the reality of the cost of living crisis, they said.

The government had earlier planned to bring in a 12-cent-per-litre increase from January 2027, followed by a 6-cent-per-litre rise in 2028 and 4-cent-per-litre in subsequent years.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis had since said it was “very unlikely” to go ahead with the initial increase in January, but ACT Party leader David Seymour said it should be implemented.

“When fuel prices are through the roof, it’s really just insensitive – it shows that they’re out of touch with reality,” the spokesperson said.

Transport minister responds

When approached about the protest, Finance Minister Nicola Willis’s office directed RNZ to earlier statements from Transport Minister Chris Bishop, including that he believed some of the protesters’ claims seemed to rely on “false assumptions”.

Since the crisis began, the fuel tax had not changed, Bishop said, but remained about 70c per litre of petrol, rather than a percentage of fuel prices.

“The government is not in a position to reduce fuel taxes in a way contemplated by the protesters,” he said. “It would be untargeted and expensive, and come at the expense of other government priorities, like improving maintenance of our roads.”

Bishop also ruled out changes to RUCs, which also help fund road maintenance.

Rural families, food sector being hit hard and need help, protesters say

One demonstrator, who did not want to be named, pointed to Australia as an example of a country that had temporarily cut fuel taxes to alleviate fuel-related cost pressures.

“Temporary relief is all that we’re asking for,” the spokesperson said.

Reducing RUCs to help the freight industry was also important, they added.

“Relieve that pressure off… especially our food-lines that deliver the food to the supermarkets, because that’s what the majority of us depend on.”

They also called on the government to stop requiring importers to pay Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) levies.

A Commerce Commission fuel pricing document from March 2026 showed taxes and levies accounted for 49 percent of the cost of fuel.

Another demonstrator told RNZ the high price of fuel was particularly crushing for rural families.

“There’s lots of mothers with children that … can’t get on school buses to school and they have to take the kids. They’re all suffering.”

In its mission statement, Fuel Tax Protest NZ said it wanted more transparency over how the government spent fuel-related incomes.

“Show us the pothole prevention fund, show us the road maintenance, show us where the money is actually going.”

It also called for more fuel-cost relief for what it described as essential services – farmers, transport operators, emergency services and food supply chains.

Police monitored the gathering, but told RNZ the protesters had been “peaceful”.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand