Resources Minister Shane Jones, sporting a Make NZ Great Again hat, arrived at a parliamentary scrutiny session on Thursday ready for a fight over the previous Government’s ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration permits.
“We are in the grip of a substantial set of dangerous challenges, and it is for those reasons we are proceeding to pass legislation to overturn the most destructive decision in the history of New Zealand’s industry,” Jones told a select committee in his opening remarks.
Throughout the hour-long hearing, Jones directly targeted former Energy Minister and Labour MP Megan Woods, whom he repeatedly called on to appear before an “altar of truth” and “apologise” for her involvement in the ban.
Of course, Jones himself had also been on the Beehive theatrette stage on that fateful day in 2018 when former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the ban, which she said was important to addressing climate change. It’s something he said he’d “atoned” for.
Woods, on the select committee Jones was facing, responded by saying the minister needed to enter “the chapel of you actually answering questions”.
But Jones’ ire wasn’t focused only on Woods. When the Labour MP said he should stop attacking politicians, Jones responded by saying Ardern was not a politician as “she lives in exile”. Ardern’s in the United States leading a course at Harvard University.
He later told the Herald he didn’t believe there could be unanimity in energy policy while Woods was involved.
“Sadly, Jacinda has left her in the lurch, fled to America, and Megan is trying to defend a legacy which, quite frankly, has led to considerable rack and ruin for a lot of industry players reliant on gas," Jones said.
Woods hit back, telling the Herald Jones had “spent more time choosing his outfit than thinking about the energy needs of New Zealand businesses and households”.
“I just would have liked the minister to come to the select committee room and answer some questions and be across his portfolio rather than practising lines in front of the mirror in his costume.”
In between the political fisticuffs, there were some revelations, such as confirmation from the minister that legislation reversing the ban would return to Parliament within weeks after being temporarily paused for further work.
He also told the Herald he is expecting to make announcements shortly about New Zealand’s involvement in the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, an international grouping intended to support the phase-out of oil and gas production.
“I look forward to announcements in the not-too-distant future, putting our involvement with such an indulgent, vanity-belief community to the sword,” Jones said.
Asked if he had the agreement of his coalition partners to that, he said: “As I said, we will have decisions coming soon.”
Woods, for the previous Labour Government’s part, said she was interested in how that might affect trade agreements, because she saw it as backtracking on climate commitments.
Jones initially entered the select committee room in Wellington’s Bowen House for what was a relatively tame discussion of his regional development portfolio.
He wore one of his staple navy blue suits for that session, though when he re-emerged after a short break in proceedings, he didn’t just have his figurative Resources Minister hat on, but a cap reading: “Make NZ Great Again. Drill Baby Drill”.
Jones attempted to explain the current state of play when it came to gas in New Zealand, including recent supply data showing the availability of gas has shrunk significantly in recent years.
He mentioned the new $200 million contingency fund announced in the Budget for investment in gas fields, allowing the Crown to potentially take a commercial stake in new developments to address sovereign risk.
“I hope to be the politician who emulates Australia and keeps the availability of gas as a contingency fuel in New Zealand until 2070,” Jones told the committee.
“As we speak, we are dependent on Indonesian coal to keep our lights on. This, sadly, was the unintended consequence of earlier shallow, vanity-signalling, dangerous industrial decisions made without substantial analysis.”
He said the ban on new gas exploration had “put at risk major industrial users of gas” and “is undermining the availability of gas to critical state functions”.
Woods began questioning Jones by asking what the conditions would need to be to allow a drawdown of that $200m contingency fund.
Jones said $8m had been set aside for administering the fund. He didn’t provide any specific conditions, arguing it was “unwise” to make them public ahead of any commercial negotiations.
The minister quickly moved to draw a connection between the need for the contingency and the ban.
“The underlying thinking behind the fund is that it is an attempt to take the jagged edges off those who doubt that New Zealand is capable of sticking to its word,” he said.
“I have atoned for that awful decision, and I hope one day you too will apologise at the altar of truth.”
As Woods attempted to ask more of Jones, he jumped in: “I have answered the question. I didn’t come here for an ideological blow-by-blow with someone who has ruined the gas industry of New Zealand.”
To reinforce his point about the ban putting off international investors, Jones recounted a story of someone from an overseas company who had been on their way to New Zealand to sign an extraction deal off the coast of the South Island.
“That person suffered the humiliation of being told in an international airport, ‘you have to come home. Jacinda Ardern, aided by the then-Minister of Energy, has just destroyed the oil and gas industry.’”
Woods interjected: “That and the fact there were no commercial finds in the Great Southern Basin.”
The Greens’ Steve Abel attempted to back up Woods’ point by noting that even before the ban was introduced, companies had relinquished their permits because they “had prospected and found nothing”.
Jones responded by saying no one had perfect knowledge of “the geological character of where and at what point further gas will be found”.
“Yes, historically, a number of people did spend a lot of money. But the moment the oil and gas industry was cancelled through the ideological blender of Jacinda Ardern, it had a chilling effect, and people then knew, under the regime of that exiled politician, there was no future for fossil fuels.”
Abel said Jones was leaning into “Trumpian climate denialism”.
In response to this, Jones spoke about the need to reverse the ban to help New Zealand’s economy and said the bill doing so would be back in the House in “two or three weeks’ time”.
“You and I have different views about climate,” he told Abel. “I happen to think it is moral hysteria. I have said this for many years. That is why I am a proud supporter of the extractive fossil fuels industry.”
Woods, the Labour MP, contends the $200m “subsidy” is irresponsible when the money could instead go towards ensuring a transition away from fossil fuels. She believes New Zealanders should know the criteria for taxpayer money supporting gas developments.
“There is a fund that has no criteria yet that can be made public for how people will qualify for it, to take an equity stake in a search for gas where billions of dollars have already been spent looking for that gas and have come up dry,” she said.
“Even if it were to be found, it would take five to seven years on average to come to production, some even longer. This is at a time when New Zealand households and businesses are struggling to pay their power bills.”
During the hearing, there was also a discussion about the expenses associated with imported liquefied natural gas, which Jones said a call hadn’t been made on. The minister said there had been inquiry about the Government’s seriousness about importation when he was in Singapore recently.
Woods asked Jones what the immediate plan was. He responded that New Zealand’s reliance on coal would only grow in the short to medium term, before again attacking the gas ban and calling for an apology from the former minister.
Speaking to the Herald later, Jones said gas was a “long-term firming option”.
“Just because it takes a long time, doesn’t necessarily mean we should not commit to it.”
He said there could also be fast-tracking on solar, wind and geothermal options.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.
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