Jacinda Ardern's climate change crusade 'nothing but hot air' - Ryan Bridge
Ryan Bridge on the The AM Show. Credits: Video - Newshub; Image - The AM Show/file Jacinda Ardern's hypocrisy on climate change and petrol prices "knows no bounds", says The AM Show and RadioLIVE host Ryan Bridge. He says the Prime Minister's trying to have it both ways - being seen as a leader on climate change issues, but at the same time pressuring petrol companies to lower their prices. "In this country, we've been trying to get people out of their cars for years," Bridge told AM Show viewers and listeners on Thursday morning. "Remember that blight on our planet we call climate change? Price hikes and taxes have got to be the best thing to happen to our planet in its lifetime, right? Jacinda Ardern must be over the moon. "[But] the Prime Minister is on the warpath to stop price hikes, ordering an inquiry, firing shots at oil companies - 'drop the prices, get back in your cars'." Ms Ardern earlier this month said petrol companies were "fleecing" motorists and "profiteering". New legislation will compel companies to open up their books. "We are literally changing the law so the Commerce Commission can go in and demand information from the fuel companies," Ms Ardern said. But she's also called the fight against climate change her generation's "nuclear-free moment" , put restrictions on future fossil fuel exploration and used her platform at the United Nations recently to challenge other world leaders to do more . "The hypocrisy here knows no bounds," said Bridge. "Shouldn't you be happy, Prime Minister, that people are getting out of their cars? Isn't' that what you wanted? "See, it's very easy to attack Big Oil and stop them exploring for it, an easier target than to attack motorists - aka voters - because they keep you in a job. This nuclear-free thing is virtue signalling at its very worst, from a Government whose so-called moral crusade against climate change is running on nothing but hot air." Fuel prices have hit record highs in the past month , thanks to a low New Zealand dollar, high oil prices and the latest fuel taxes. International oil prices have been rising since 2015 , but are still well below what they were in the years immediately before and after the global financial crisis. Newshub.