If you woke up this morning hoping things had somehow sorted themselves out in the Strait of Hormuz, sorry to disappoint. 

It’s still the cluster it was yesterday. In fact, worse, actually. With hostilities ramping up overnight. 

Which will probably have Singapore's Prime Minister saying “told you so” to anyone who poo-pooed the comments he made after meeting with Christopher Luxon yesterday, that he doesn’t see things getting any better on the fuel front for another six months. Maybe longer. 

Which tells me one thing: we need to do more to prepare for that here. In my mind, there is one thing The Government should be doing. Which I'll get to.  

So, Christopher Luxon has been in Singapore with the finance minister and the trade minister and a delegation of business leaders for the signing of a new trade deal. But, in light of what’s happening in the middle east, they also confirmed the fuel for food deal that’s been tacked on to the trade agreement. 

They came up with that after the war in Iran started impacting oil prices. Which pretty much says we’ll keep sending food products to Singapore, even when things get ropey - as they are at the moment. 

And, in exchange for that, Singapore will keep sending us refined fuel. 

It was after doing the paperwork and signing on the dotted line when Lawrence Wong, the prime minister of Singapore, said he sees shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz extending into next year. 

He says infrastructure in the Middle East has been destroyed and shipping operators will want to know they’re not going to be attacked before they send their crews through. 

Not to mention the insurance issues shipping companies must be dealing with in that part of the world. 

Quite rightly, Lawrence Wong says that won’t happen overnight, and he thinks the disruptions to fuel shipments will continue for at least another six months. Potentially longer.  

Which means one thing: higher prices are here to stay. 

And, as we’ve found out over the last few weeks, it’s not just fuel that’s affected. There’s fertiliser. There’s plastics. Medicines. 

Which is why I think Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis need to spend the time on the flight home from Singapore drafting a recommendation to cabinet to ramp things up. 

Because they need to listen to what Singapore's PM is saying and act on it. 

And, in my mind, that has to be relief for major diesel users. 

Yes, I know diesel prices have been down again. But, if we’ve learned anything from the past couple of months, it’s that when oil prices go up, diesel users are impacted way more than petrol users. 

And that’s why we need to listen to what Singapore's Prime Minister is saying and prepare for another six months or more of this. 

And we should be getting ourselves ready to subsidise major diesel users.  

I’m talking here about manufacturers and distributors of essential food products. 

It wouldn’t have to kick in straight away. The Government could say that, as soon as diesel prices go higher than petrol, subsidies will kick-in for the big food producers and trucking companies. 

Because the price of diesel affects all of us. The higher the price of diesel, the more we’ll end up paying at the supermarket. 

And, if the government is serious about trying to keep some sort of lid on the cost of living, this is the way to do it. 

If the Prime Minister of Singapore, where we get 30 percent of our refined fuel from, thinks this is going to go on for another six months, we need to be ready for when the price of diesel goes through the roof again. 

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