Nicola Willis ridiculed a campaign launched by the Labour Government in 2023 to provide New Zealanders with tips to save energy and lower their power bills.
Today, she announced a public information campaign with tips on how New Zealanders could cut down on fuel use and save money.
Labour’s campaign, run through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), aimed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis by suggesting people switch off appliances not in use, set their heat pumps to a maximum of 21C, and shorten their showers.
“I think it’s ludicrous,” Willis said at the time, “and what adds insult to injury is that the Government is using taxpayer money to send that patronising advice out to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders at considerable expense.”
She said the tips were “already being applied by large numbers of New Zealanders”.
Today, the Finance Minister said the latest campaign, also to be run by the EECA, would “consist of tips about things that motorists can do right now to reduce their own fuel costs. These include sensible, common sense things”.
She said it was not a case of the Government “telling people what to do”.
“It is a case of providing practical information that people may want to use to save fuel and money. The campaign will start running on social media and radio tomorrow and will roll out over the coming weeks.”
The EECA website suggests Kiwis “keep an eye on your speed” (decreasing speed can save fuel), “lighten the load”, “switch off when waiting” and other ideas.
“Your fuel will go up to 20% further with a few efficient driving habits, and staying on top of routine maintenance, like checking your tyre pressure regularly. It’s the equivalent of saving around $44 on every tank.”
The Government says that, during phase 1 of its fuel-crisis response, the campaign “will focus on sensible, voluntary ways New Zealanders can conserve fuel, and reduce their costs”.
“In phase 2, it would encourage Kiwis to reduce their fuel use so we can avoid the more intense measures in phase 3. We trust the public and industry to make decisions that work best for their families and businesses.”
Asked by the Herald how this campaign differed from the one she criticised under Labour, Willis responded: “I have the same feelings about politicians telling people what to do now as I did then.” She’s repeatedly expressed hesitancy about this.
But she was also “evidence-based”, and the EECA had said “some of these pieces of information are not well-known to New Zealanders”.
“It has been the advice from the experts that they provide this information to New Zealanders, both in this phase and in a more intense way in the second phase, that there is demonstrable evidence that that could reduce fuel use, but right now could reduce the cost of people’s bills. This is a case of where the evidence has spoken.”
The EECA campaign run under the Labour Government in 2023 received a brutal response online at the time, including from members of the National Party, Act, the Greens and advocacy groups. It was later revealed that the campaign cost $2.8 million.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.