Maybe my head is in the sand, but all this excitement about fuel prices isn’t making me any more inclined to buy an electric vehicle.

Tell that to the people who are getting all excited and buying them. In big numbers too, it seems.

So we’ve got the government warning that petrol prices could hit $4 a litre and EV dealers saying they’re being run off their feet because of the ongoing situation in the middle east.

BYD sold 80 on Saturday across the country. Normally they’d sell 25 on an average Saturday. So that’s a major increase.

Here in Christchurch, EV dealerships are reporting a major leap in sales too, with one of them selling out entirely in just two days.

People are coming from as far away as nelson to get their hands on electric vehicles too, apparently.

How things can change. In November, the EV dealers were ripping-in to the government for the changes it was making to the clean car standards for imported vehicles and we were all talking about the EV bubble busting.

Fast-forward four months and throw in a bit of good old fashioned kiwi over-reaction, and the picture is very different.

This war has only been going two-and-a-bit weeks but that’s enough, it seems, for some people to want to go all EV on it.

I drive petrol cars. And, at this point, i have no intention of switching to an EV.

One of my vehicles, especially, is a real gas guzzler. But despite that, I have never had any interest in owning an EV. I can‘t tell you exactly why. It’s not a protest of any sort. It’s not climate change denial. It’s none of that.

I’m just not interested. And I am no more interested now, despite the war and the fuel prices.

And i reckon that, once the oil tankers start sailing again through the strait of Hormuz, most people will still be happy with petrol and diesel vehicles.

The other thing too is, that if i was buying an EV, I'd spend quite a bit of time looking into it.

You wouldn’t get me seeing a few days of petrol price increases and going all knee-jerk on it.

But the ev people are loving it that some people are.

DTR motors in Hornby had six cars on the lot on Friday night. By Sunday, they were all gone.

Alex Wu is the sales manager. He says: “people just showed up, even from nelson, paid and drove off.”

He says the weekend was the most “explosive” sales period in the nearly two years that DTR motors has been operating in Christchurch.

And that’s without any rebate assistance from the government.

Which Finance Minister Nicola Willis said yesterday wouldn’t be making a comeback. Saying: "i simply don't accept the idea that giving subsidies to millionaires in Remuera would help those afflicted by high petrol prices."

Nevertheless, EV’s are in demand again. So how tempted are you?

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I’ve got a story which has Covid-19 toilet paper mania written all over it.

I was blown away talking to someone in Christchurch at the weekend who said they’d been out and bought a whole lot of extra food because of the fuel situation with everything going on in the Middle East.

This is not something I endorse and it certainly isn’t something I'll be doing. But maybe the fact that they are British has something to do with it.

Because they were saying that they remembered the time when Britain invaded Iraq and the government telling people then to stockpile.

They said they were told they should have a month’s worth of non-perishable food in the cupboards. And that’s what they did.

So, as soon as they started hearing about fuel tanks in New Zealand running dry over the weekend, they shot out to the supermarket and stocked up.

They told me they’d been thinking about the potential consequences if we get to the point where the 50-days' supply the government keeps talking about starts to get a bit low on it.

What if the farmers start getting rationed? What about food production lines that need fuel? Not to mention fuel for the trucks that deliver food supplies around the country.

For a very brief second, I started thinking that they might have a point.

But it was a very brief second.

They also said they thought we should be rationing fuel now, instead of waiting until there’s a problem on the horizon.

That, if a fuel shortage does happen, it’s going to be all the other things that we rely on fuel for that are going to be affected.

But you’re not going to see me at Pak n Save filling the trolley up - just in case.

Because if everyone did that then we really would have shortages on our hands.

Just like there was no need for the rush on toilet paper during covid, there is no reason for us to be stockpiling food now.

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Aside from trying to make sure we don’t run out of fuel because of what’s going on in the middle east, the other challenge the Government has on its hands is that we’re not the country we were six years.

Six years ago, when COVID first hit, we were much more compliant. Way more than we are now.

Six years ago - by and large - we all went along with all the restrictions and the initial lockdowns without too much resistance.

These days, it’s a different story. Which is why i think the government would be pushing it uphill with some of the fuel conservation ideas being thrown around.

I think it’s brilliant that the Government is thinking about this now and not waiting until the tanks are starting to go dry. Which is about 50 days away from happening, according to Finance Minister Nicola Willis

She says if new orders started being disrupted, then the Government would have to think about prioritising fuel for the likes of emergency services and the transport industry and other measures, such as car-less days, fuel rationing and working from home.

Let’s start with car-less days. The only way I could see them working was if insurance companies came out and said they wouldn’t cover a vehicle if it was driven on the nominated car-less day.

I don’t think more working from home would make much difference, either. Because people would still use their vehicles.

If anything, fuel rationing would be the only practical way of reducing fuel consumption. Because, if you can’t buy it, you can’t use it.

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National's Hamish Campbell and Labour's Tracey McLellan joined John MacDonald for Politics Friday this week.

They covered some of the biggest topics from the week, including the release of the second phase of the Covid Inquiry, if more public money is required for the Christ Church Cathedral, and what is the landmark you think of when you think of Christchurch?

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Three hundred and fifty jobs at Heinz Wattie's are on the line and we’ve only got ourselves to blame.

I’m including myself here.

Because all of us have pretty much fallen into the trap of thinking cheapest is best.

And, more often than not, if we think cheapest is best then we end up buying stuff from overseas and turning our backs on local products.

Before now, I've never really signed up to that whole buy New Zealand made thing. There have been various campaigns over recent years, haven’t there? With the little buy New Zealand made tags and things.

But hearing the news about Wattie's and thinking about the cheap fruit being dumped in New Zealand from China and the impact that alone has had on the company, I had a bit of an aha moment.

That we really need to think seriously about the stuff we buy and where it comes from.

I think buying New Zealand made probably matters more now than ever.

The jobs at Heinz Wattie's are set to go because the company has plans to shut down three New Zealand factories.

Frozen vegetables are one of Wattie's products that will disappear if the closures go ahead, with the company saying that it just can’t compete with cheaper products being imported from overseas.

So, it’s the fruit thing all over again.

Which raises the question: does New Zealand-made matter anymore?

If I'm honest, I don’t think it does matter to most people. But i think it should.

Because, as well as the 350 workers affected, there are also around 220 growers in the canterbury region alone who supply the Christchurch site.

So they’ll be very worried too.

And it’s not just Wattie's we’re talking about, either.

As the union that represents the Wattie's workers is saying today, manufacturing closures are becoming more and more common.

Other companies that have wound back their manufacturing here in New Zealand recently include carter Holt Harvey, Sealord in Nelson and Kinleith pulp and paper.

And the people affected by these proposed closures have Wattie's in their blood. The average length of service is around 30 years. So it’s probably fairly safe to assume that there will be generations of families who have worked at Wattie's.

Union delegate Kathy Perrin has worked at Heinz Wattie's for 46 years in different roles and is saying today that the impact on workers will be devastating.

We might say we care about buying products made here but, when it comes down to it, I don’t think we actually do.

But how important is New Zealand made to you?

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There is another plan in the works to revive Cathedral Square with the Council asking for the public's ideas later this year

The Christchurch City Council has announced they have a budget of $28.5 million set aside to put a revitalisation plan in action.

Mayor Phil Mauger told Canterbury Mornings that he would like to put some of the money into the Christ Church Cathedral to fix it instead of only funding the redevelopment of Cathedral Square.

"Some of it could go to the Cathedral, they're crying out for it, let's not spend or waste 28 million dollars in the square when some of it could go towards the Cathedral."

They also discussed his idea to fix East Christchurch's wastewater issues, Whether or not he backs the Dux de Lux rebuild to be paid with council rates, and his thoughts on potentially bringing the Santa Parade to central Christchurch.

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I don’t think there’ll be too many complaints about the report from phase two of the COVID inquiry.

Because, for $14 million, we’ve all got something out of it. That’s $14 million for this phase. Phase one cost us about $17 million.

If you’re anti-vax or vaccine-weary, you’ve got the bit in the report about officials not telling ministers that 12 to 17-year-olds shouldn't really have been getting two doses of the vaccine. Because of the risk of myocarditis.

That was an absolute shocker that one.

If you think Jacinda was a saint and saved us all, you’re probably having a bit of a “told you so” moment.

Irrespective of how patronising she and her ministers got the longer the pandemic went on, you’ll be having your “told you so” moment because the report says, overall, New Zealand's approach was good.

If you think the Government got it wrong thinking that the team of five million would stick together no matter what, you’ll be happy with the report too.

Because it says some of the mandates went on too long, and the Government failed to communicate well enough with us.

In fact, i can’t think of anyone who won’t feel they’ve got at least something out of it.

Except NZ First Leader Winston peters, perhaps.

He says many people think the inquiry has been one-sided and the damage is done.

The damage he’s talking about there is the damage from the mandates.

He says: “The employment and wage-scarring impacts of the mandates were significant. The Labour Government made no attempt to monitor these impacts and the devastating results that would come to our country.

“These mandates and lockdowns cost thousands of jobs and had a devastating effect on our economy and people’s health and livelihoods - all of which were avoidable.”

And I agree with him that not enough thought was given about the long-term consequences of the mandates. Which, at the time, I supported.

Winston Peters says: “the report brings questions that need to be answered by Hipkins and Verrall and all those other former ministers. They cannot brush this off.”

One of those former ministers, Chris Hipkins, said on Newstalk ZB this morning that he doesn‘t think his involvement in the COVID response and the findings of the inquiry will put people off voting for him.

And I agree with him. Anyone who holds a grudge now will always hold a grudge. And there’s nothing Chris Hipkins can do to change that.

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The rubber is hitting the road for us here in New Zealand with fuel prices on the up because of the situation in the Middle East.

The Taxpayers’ Union hasn’t been slow in coming forward, saying the government should be cutting its fuel taxes. Temporarily, anyway.

It says households shouldn’t be forced to shoulder the full cost of global instability.

It’s spokesman Jordan Williams is saying that people are already struggling with the cost of living and the government needs to wear some of the burden rather than lumping it all on motorists.

I get his argument and, more to the point, it’s not just motorists who are impacted. Everyone is impacted because the price of fuel pretty much impacts the price of everything.

Nevertheless, thank goodness the government hasn’t jumped on the kneejerk reaction bandwagon with this one. With finance minister Nicola Willis saying that won’t be happening.

Which makes perfect sense. For several reasons.

The main one being timing.

We’re only a week or so into this war and who knows what’s going to be happening this time next week or two weeks from now.

And that’s the job of a government in times like these. Don’t panic and see where things go.

Especially, when there’s the potential for the G7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States - to release some of the fuel they keep up their sleeve for times like these.

They decided overnight that that doesn’t need to happen right now. But they’re due to have another think about later this week.

The Automobile Association’s principal policy adviser terry Collins has been warning that petrol prices could get close to $4 a litre.

I think the likelihood of that has diminished and good on the government for holding its nerve.

Tell that to Labour leader Chris Hipkins, though.

He says back in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, his government heard about people not being able to afford the petrol they needed to get to work.

At that point, a litre of petrol cost $3.

Chris Hipkins says: “Once fuel inflation reached that point where people couldn’t afford to go to work, because they couldn’t afford to fill up the car, we made the decision at that point that the immediate priority was providing support to New Zealand households.”

And he wants to see the same thing happen again.

I don’t - and I think the government’s made the right move.

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