The Case For Reinstating The Refinery
What makes this cause hard to get off the ground? Politics, Ideology, Apathy, and a crowded market in the cause arena.
Over a year ago, I decided to promote an occupation of Marsden Point. I did this to get attention directed toward the final phase of sabotage to our strategic asset. Due to some slander from some Māori supremacist trust board members who owned no property where we were, we changed the occupation to an inhabitation. I learned from the late Chris Leitch and some passionate ex-operators; that our refinery had been subjected to a decade-long process of sabotage. Thanks to a massive political show called COVID-19, economic hitmen for Ampol put the final nails into our refinery’s coffin. Many may argue where were the “activists” three years ago? Fair point, we were distracted by the same thing as all of you. Be grateful that we got to this issue when we did, no Crown politician is coming to the rescue.
Many of you have a problem with me and the media’s interpretation of my views, and therefore, don’t want me promoting the reinstatement of the refinery. That’s ridiculous, I should be judged on my ability to market and argue the case for its reinstatement. I should not be judged on my other views or refusal to put up with cause arsonists. We all want the refinery reinstated to protect us from geopolitical insanity, we all want to increase supply to lower the cost of transportation resources. It’s not the time to get precious over which advocacy angle you support. The truth is; that both angles are on the same side, they just focus on different approaches. The information angle that gets people to buy shares, and the controversial flashy angle that gets constantly evolving censorship. Either way, both of us are aiming at the same goal; protection from future international selfishness.
Reason One for reinstatement: War is coming. “No, it’s not”, you declare! I agree with you, our thoughts create our reality, and convincing everyone that war is not coming might be a theoretical way to prevent it. However, we tried to rebut the claim that one organism from the microbial world was in a murderous state for only three years. Did our campaign of denial and negative claim-making work to save the masses from well-marketed self-destruction? No. Back to the drawing board then? Radically critique what you did right and what you did wrong and change your overall approach. The point I’m making is that the Law of Attraction does not work best for the denial of reality. If your cause is not gaining traction, maybe you are not meeting them where they are. After all, what’s hurting everyone at the moment? The cost of everything, including transport, farming, and food?
If food production, fuel production, and proper road maintenance is still a necessity in our locality. Then we need the means to keep those things of high quality and cheap until there is a viable and better alternative. That level of resource independence increases exponentially when the rest of the world starts making moves to accelerate international conflict. How safe are you going to feel if there’s no fuel for emergency services because there’s conflict in the South China Sea? This makes reinstating the refinery a time-sensitive need. Marketing repetition of the need to reinstate should be a priority for those against car-less days and foodless nights.
Reason Two: Shifting to a reliance on importation didn’t make it cheaper for the consumer or their product-reliant businesses. Channel Infrastructure made the case that it was cheaper to import stuff than it was to refine it. If you had any mainstream politicians or journalists who still worked for you, and not the board that runs their organisation, they would have asked several key questions. Cheaper for who? The answer would have pissed you off because the answer is Channel Infrastructure directors, and few else! Not you the private passenger navigator, not you the trucking business, not you the retailer, and definitely not the average consumer.
Ampol, best known here as Channel Infrastructure management, Z Energy and our main bitumen supplier, are the principal beneficiaries of the loss of Marsden’s refining capabilities. Why? Because they now benefit from a near monopoly on our fuel imports, and an almost total monopoly on bitumen imports. Are they cheaper? No! You’re experiencing the inflationary strain at the pump and the strain on all things purchasable. Why? Because it all needs affordable quality fuel and bitumen in order for it to be transported to the store or to your door. Is bitumen more expensive now? Three times the price and it’s peeling off the road in chunks and flowing into our waterways. Thanks Andrew Brewer.
Wait, if the loss of our refining capabilities didn’t provide cheaper supply and gains for our environment, why did they do it? To advance the financial position of clever and useless middlemen. That’s what Channel Infrastructure did after the creation of sustainable administrative AI. Filled the refinery up with expensive contractors and a lot of unnecessary administration roles, got rid of all the guys who make the things we need, and turned themselves into another middleman between us and necessary transportation resources. Who’s responsible for all of this? Economic hitmen from Ampol and an ideologically possessed government allowed it to happen. Isn’t this a crime? Yes. It is economic subversion through financial mismanagement of a national strategic asset. Why would they do that? So a foreign corporation can reap the rewards of less competition operating in this country, and bought and paid for Neoliberal politicians can virtue signal “climate remedy” and Neoliberal economics.
How did we miss all of this? Really bad actions that would normally cause an uproar require really effective distractions. After all, it’s not hard to do bad things to a country if the vast majority of the country is slow on the draw. I mean, they missed a political coup in 1986 that handed power from the trust-bound British Monarch to the unbound and arrogant Corporate legal estate.
Reason Three: It’s the best location for a refinery and a waste conversion industry. Being a deep-water port with a pipeline that goes from Marsden to Wiri makes this the best location for an advanced refinery. If your “representatives” accounted for the views of the well-informed populace, we wouldn’t be sending our waste to a hole in the Dome Valley. They wouldn’t be sending our plastic waste to Malaysia or China to turn it into packaging they send back to us, and they wouldn’t be turning this country into a state of influenced victimhood dependency. Sadly, your “representatives” haven’t worked for you for a long time, they work for their international trading partners. The proof? Jacinda stated multiple times that; “we need to make sure we are meeting our obligations to our international trading partners”. What are their obligations to you, the native man or woman? Good question.
If all of the Crown’s actions benefit “international trading partners” and foreign corporations more than you; the supposed beneficiaries of the Nation-State. Then maybe they don’t work for you anymore. Worse, maybe you don’t have a Nation-State any more…
There’s no competent argument against the need for an advanced refinery on our land. How can I make that claim? No one is willing to debate me on this, not even The Platform. People can claim that people won’t support this cause because of my involvement. What’s their problem with me? I’m offensive and I teach people why they don’t need politicians or moral-less lawyers. That’s the only truthful gripe they have. What sort of people shy away from offence at the expense of the pursuit of truth? Neoliberals and Neoliberals who act like Centrists and Conservatives. Conservatives care little for how something is presented, they are supposed to care about the content, and Centrists appreciate a careful balance of both. There is no one else who is pushing for the reinstatement of this strategic asset with the excellent marketing we have.
If you agree that we need this important piece of infrastructure here, you are going to have to overcome your misguided mental constructs. Your opinion about the one who built and grew this campaign is not relevant, you need this strategic asset reinstated ASAP. For that to have a chance of happening we need good marketing repetition placed everywhere by you. Stop waiting for Groundswell, The Freedoms and Rights Coalition, and Voices For Freedom to change out of their locked-in pattern. That may not happen, they do what they do well. One toots their horn once or twice a year, one forms excellent communication networks, and the other sets up well-organized marches. One of those things is useful, the other two are just more virtue signalling, how ironic.
If the only diverse and effective marketing angle is the Dig In At Marsden, you are going to have to get over your ego and get these marketing prompts out there. Or don’t, doom your fellow man to harder times in favour of your own resentment and arrogance. We will do what needs to be done and hope that you will eventually do the same.
Excellent report Brad. We definitely need to reinstate the refinery. Effective transportation & infrastructure is the key to freedom & prosperity, lowers reliance on other countries resources & checks inflation & protects NZ$