Should NZ follow Australia's lead and increase fuel reserves? AA says no

Shipments of 3.2 billion litres of fuel are on their way to Australia, which will boost the country's fuel reserve up to 46 days of petrol, 39 days of diesel, and 34 days of jet fuel.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was more supply than Australia had ever had at once.Should New Zealand do the same?The Automobile Association said there is no need."The Australians have a different requirement than what we do. Ours is around security of supply for economic means, theirs is for both economic and security means," AA fuel spokesperson Terry Collins said."They have fighter aircraft and different weaponry, and having bigger reserves would probably recognise the fact they need it for both economic and security reasons."Collins said New Zealand's supply remained steady, thanks to agreements with other nations like South Korea and Singapore."We've managed to get through this conflict in the Strait of Hormuz without having a supply problem," he said."Our move away from having a refinery in New Zealand meant we weren't necessarily reliant on crude oil, we just had to find refined product, and there are more manufacturers of refined product we can get it from that meet the standards we require."The most recent stock take put New Zealand's petrol and jet fuel supply at 31 days, and diesel at 26 days.Collins said that was plenty."There's been a review done on it by the government, they believe they came to an optimum level, there could be an argument for increasing it by a week or two... We're at a level that balances risk with the cost of maintaining additional supply," he said."We've had a well managed supply. There were concerns we were going to end up with a supply problem, we didn't end up with one."Collins was so confident the supply would hold that he this week urged motorists to fill up their cars."I never would've said that if I thought it would impact on the security of our supply. I'm very confident we have enough supply."