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Wellington councillor warns cheaper petrol is not a good thing

Author
Newstalk ZB ,
Publish Date
Wed, 15 May 2019, 6:19PM
Cars queue on Fergusson Drive for cheaper fuel at Waitomo's new station. (Photo / Supplied)

Wellington councillor warns cheaper petrol is not a good thing

Author
Newstalk ZB ,
Publish Date
Wed, 15 May 2019, 6:19PM

A Wellington city councillor says cheaper petrol prices aren't always a good thing.

Queues built up yesterday at the newly opened Waitomo fuel stop in Upper Hutt.

It's hoped it'll bring some price competition to the region, one of the more expensive in the country.

Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett says for some people cheaper prices are a good thing because household budgets are under pressure.

But she says overall they encourage people to use their cars, rather than sustainable alternatives.

"We're also continuing to send out the message that we can keep on burning fossil fuels even though it is obviously to our detriment overall."

Pannett told Heather du Plessis-Allen that it should instead be cheaper to use public transport and electric vehicles than petrol vehicles. 

"Wellington pays some of the highest public transport fares in the country. When you want to do something good for the environment, you need to do some cheap and affordable." 

She admits that the public transport network is suffering issues in part of Wellington, but people can still walk, cycle or share cars.

Pannett would like to see a tax hike on their petrol. 

"We have to look at the way we tax fuels, and we need to give more assistance to forms of transport that are sustainable."

She says that she does not want to see people struggle to put food on the table as a result, and there should be higher wages to help people afford more. 

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