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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Christopher Luxon is at risk of sounding a bit like Joe Biden.

You’ll remember the former US president bungled that election debate with Donald Trump and then people started calling for him to go and he said he wasn’t standing down.

Christopher Luxon sounded a bit like that when he was on Newstalk ZB on Friday afternoon and this morning.

He said he was “absolutely not” considering standing down. That the only thing he was thinking about was the future of our kids and grandkids.

I think he’s absolutely right not to be thinking about standing down. Not that I think his colleagues won’t try to roll him. That could happen. And, when I heard him on Friday, I wondered whether his denial of having any thoughts about standing down was a message for us or a message for his caucus.

I’m in no doubt he was talking to his colleagues. Telling them very publicly that he’s not going anywhere.

He said he has no idea where the talk about him considering his future came from. He also said “hand on heart” he will still be Prime Minister and leader of the National Party when this year’s election comes around.

So not considering his future in the slightest. Nor should he.

While I don’t think he’s anywhere near the best prime minister we’ve ever had nor the best leader National has ever had, he’s not the worst of a pretty average bunch.

Over the weekend, a poll came out saying that 51 percent of people want to see a new leader of the National party. But that same poll showed that the likes of Erica Stanford’s star has faded a bit with voters.

The other thing too with her and other names mentioned, such as Mark Mitchell is that, while they have impressed people with their portfolio work, do you reckon they’d be any good at being across everything?

Could you imagine Mark Mitchell or Erica Stanford talking about inflation with any great authority? Chris Bishop would probably be the most credible on that front.

Another reason why I think Luxon should stay, is that this is his moment to show that he can hold a steady course when things hit the fan. It’s his chance to show that he can keep a team together when things are going a bit pear-shaped.

Reason number three: the last thing this country needs right now is more turbulence. There’s enough going on. Changing prime minister is way different than Labour changing leader back in 2017 when it was in Opposition.

If Chrisopher Luxon is the leader he seems to think he is, then he’ll ignore all that noise. Not for his sake. But for the sake of the country.

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You know what the Government should do with this recommendation from a parliamentary select committee to ban under-16s from using social media? Ignore it.

With the Government thinking about copying Australia’s ban, a select committee has looked into it and it’s come back with a whole lot of recommendations relating to the online world - including a recommendation that we go ahead with a ban.

The committee says: “Harm to young New Zealanders from online platforms is severe and requires urgent responses.”

The key word there is “harm” and, as the ACT Party is saying today, banning under-16s from social media won’t fix that.

The Greens are opposed to the idea too - with both parties saying it could just lead to kids using what they’re calling “fringe websites”, instead.

So the harm will still be there and the kids will keep finding it, whether-or-not there’s a social media ban.

As to why I’m against this idea. Number One: the horse has already bolted. Number Two: the horse is going to keep on bolting. Because that’s what happens in the online world and the technology world.

If politicians think banning kids under-16 from Tik Tok and Insta and YouTube is the answer, they’re dreaming.

What’s more, if we’re totally honest with ourselves, a social media ban would just let parents off the hook.

Those parents at the supermarket, pushing their kids around in the trolley, and the kids all staring at screens - should the government be coming to their rescue because they either can’t be bothered or are too weak to say no?

Of course not.

Experts from Queensland University think banning under-16s from social media is a pipedream.

They say there is insufficient evidence to show social media is responsible for the increase in youth mental health problems. They say some marginalised young people actually benefit from social media. Example: I remember hearing someone who works with young members of the rainbow community saying that social media can be really valuable for the kids he works with.

These researchers in Australia also say there is a lack of clarity as to what social media actually is.

Nevertheless, a bunch of politicians who are already way behind the 8 ball on this think a social media ban for under-16s is the way to go.

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