New Zealand doctor bills US embassy for rising fuel costs: ‘payment expected within 7 days’

A petrol station in the village of Pauatahanui, in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 27.

A surge in oil prices since the start of the Middle East war has sent fuel costs spiralling.

Photo: AFP A New Zealand doctor has sent the US embassy in Wellington an invoice for his clinic’s fuel bills, saying that President Donald Trump and his administration should take responsibility for starting a war that has sent oil prices spiralling.

Shane Dunphy asked the embassy to reimburse him for the NZ$2,790.95 (US$1,600) in petrol vouchers he gave staff at Onslow Medical Centre in the capital so that they could travel to work, The Guardian newspaper reported. “Because of the current fuel crisis, triggered by the joint US and Israel attack on Iran leading to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, our staff are struggling to afford petrol for their vehicles,” he wrote in the letter, dated March 27. “As employers, we feel it necessary to soften the impact on our staff by providing them with some fuel vouchers so that they can afford to come to work and to feed their families.” Dr Shane Dunphy of Onslow Medical Centre in New Zealand.

Photo: Handout Some staff members living in a suburb about 30km from Wellington found they were paying up to NZ$100 more per week for fuel, he added. “We now ask that the US reimburse us the cost of these vouchers.

The US is responsible for this and therefore should be held accountable.” Calling US attacks on Iran “immoral and completely unjustified”, he signed off saying: “Payment is expected within seven days.” Dunphy encouraged other New Zealanders to send similar invoices to the US embassy but said: “No amount of money could compensate for the human misery and loss of life Trump and the US are responsible for.” He told the newspaper that he did not think the US embassy would pay up but that the invoice was “a matter of principle”. “If you break something, you should fix it.

I think that the whole world needs to be pointing the finger at the US and saying, sort this out.

You voted this man to be president.

You sort it out,” he said.

The fuel crisis was a direct result of Trump’s actions, he said. “One man has led to this global economic crisis.

So that sums it up for me, that’s why I’ve done it.” The US embassy did not respond to queries from the newspaper.

Notes read “Out of Stock” at the New World Fuel station in Levin, New Zealand, on March 1.

The country imports nearly all of its fuel.

Photo: AFP Iran has effectively closed

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