Petition on Refining NZ reaches Parliament Petitions' committee

A petition by Chris Leitch's Social Credit Party with more than 18,000 signatures has gone to Parliament's Petitions' Committee. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A petition with more than 18,000 signatures calling on the Government to keep Refining NZ at Marsden Point operational has gone to Parliament's Petitions Committee.

Whangārei-based Chris Leitch, of the Social Credit Party, started the petition on change.org in September last year, calling on the Government to declare the refinery a nationally-strategic asset and to compulsorily buy all the shares from private owners using money created by the Reserve Bank.

The Government, the party argues, should then turn it back into a state-owned enterprise and allow fuel retailers, rather than a monopoly consisting of major oil companies, as is the case at present, to sell fuel in the country.

The petition garnered 18,300 signatures.

In a natural disaster or international conflict, the party said shipping routes could be cut off and fuel to critical sectors of our economy severely compromised.

"We believe NZ needs an insurance policy against that risk, and that buying the refinery is cheap insurance. NZ produces oil. If refined here, we believe it could give NZ fuel security for essential services, and the money to purchase the refinery shares would be small next to approximately $60 billion created by the Reserve Bank in the last two years."

The petitions committee requested the party put in a submission to support its petition.

"The ongoing actual and likely economic costs of closure of the refinery will be borne by the Government, fuel users and individuals - which ultimately means all New Zealanders will pay," Leitch said in his submission.

He said the environmental clean-up costs of the refinery site once Refining NZ stopped the operation was estimated to be about $300 million.

No plan has been published for this work, but the costs would undoubtedly be passed on to fuel users through the cost of fuel at the pumps, he said.

"The Reserve Bank has already created around $60 billion in the last 18 months and the $260-$300 million needed to purchase the refinery shares would be a drop in
the bucket."

The other option, he suggested, is that the Government follows Australia's lead and subsidises the refinery's operation with a levy on fuel users.

"While we need to transition away from reliance on fossil fuels, having the refinery in operation will allow blending of bio-fuels, fuels from carbon capture,
plastic and other options as they come on stream.

"It could also participate in developing production and supply of those new fuels, particularly Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Without it, all those options become much more difficult and very expensive as the infrastructure, already in existence at Marsden Point,
will have to be constructed from scratch," Leitch said.

■ Refining NZ's board has confirmed the change in operations of the site, meaning the refinery will transition to an import-only fuel terminal from April.

The refinery's shareholders voted overwhelmingly in August for the change - with the new entity known as Channel Infrastructure - to go ahead due to what it said was a glut of fuel supplies globally, combined with the impact of Covid-19 on refinery output, pipeline fees and plummeting demand for fuel.

The number of workers at the site is expected to drop from 300 to 60, with hundreds of contracting jobs and services from associated businesses in wider Northland also likely to be cut.