The world has reacted to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admitting there is a cost of living crisis and lowering fuel excise duties.
On Monday, Ardern accepted New Zealand has a cost of living crisis after last week declining to do so. Later that day, she announced the Government will cut 25 cents a litre off fuel and road user charges for three months and halve the price of public transport for the same amount of time to help ease the financial pressure at the petrol pump.
"You can call it a crisis, an emergency, a shock. The point is, we need to do something about it," Ardern told AM on Monday.
The Daily Mail describes Ardern's move to declare a cost of living crisis as a "backtrack" after she "downplayed the situation".
"Thousands of fed up Kiwis called her comments 'out of touch' and on Monday morning, she declared a cost of living crisis," the Daily Mail article says.
They go on to say that tax relief on fuel is one solution to "the dilemma", especially since New Zealanders already pay high petrol prices.
Australian Senator Rex Patrick used Ardern's fuel tax cut to take aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is yet to announce any relief.
"New Zealand's fuel excise cut – 25 NZ cents a litre, equivalent to 23 cents a litre in Australia – came into effect at midnight last night. Meantime, Australians wait for any relief from extreme petrol prices. @ScottMorrisonMP always slow," he tweeted.
Patrick urges Morrison to follow New Zealand's lead now rather than waiting until budget day in two weeks.
"If New Zealand can do this, so can Australia – and the need is greater here given the longer distances travelled by Australian motorists and the very clear inflationary pressures that are building in our economy," Patrick said in a press release.
And on slashing public transport fares by half, the Dublin Commuter Coalition in Ireland says New Zealand has moved quicker and further than what's happening in their country.
"New Zealand halves public transport fares. A 20 percent reduction two months from now in Ireland pales in comparison."
Earlier this week, the Automobile Association (AA) warned drivers should prepare to pay up to $4 per litre for petrol as the Russia and Ukraine war causes prices to skyrocket globally.
AA policy advisor Terry Collins told RNZ the economic impacts from rising petrol costs are much larger than most New Zealanders realise, and prices for petrochemical products are likely to rise quickly.
"So that's our tyres, our plastic ... our nylons, our synthetic ropes, our pharmaceuticals, our fertiliser that we use for foods," he says.
"[There's] a whole range of products that petrochemicals are used for. The price of every one of those products is going to go up as well."
