New Zealanders are notably laid back, but their government's relaxed attitude toward financing oil cleanup might be a bit overboard.

As the stricken container vessel Rena continues to leak oil and shipping containers into the ocean near Astrolabe Reef, the unhurried manner in which New Zealand transportation officials are considering oil spill response fund changes is drawing attention.

Long before the Rena ran aground, officials have been nattering over what information on fee levy increases should be presented to the public, according to a BusinessDesk article reprinted by Television New Zealand. The holdup has lasted so long that the oil industry—who would make increased contributions to the oil spill response fund—has taken to periodically haranguing the ministers.

“Indeed, I wrote to Minister Joyce in the middle of last year trying to get some action on the levy review because it was taking so slow,” John Pfahlert, of the oil and gas advocacy group Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand, is quoted as saying.

The unusual attitude (at least from a U.S. viewpoint) stems from the industry wanting to step up to the greater threats posed by offshore drilling. The increased levies would provide a 30 percent increase in total oil and shipping industry funding for oil spill pollution management, with an additional 30 percent increase in three years.

“The proposed methodology would have seen our share go from [NZ]$10,000 or so per offshore facility to over [NZ]$200,000,” he told BusinessDesk. “Industry supported that approach [because it accepted that floating production, storage, and offloading units] posed a greater risk to the environment.”

Even without the increased risk, lingering over levy increases is probably a bad idea. While levies for the fund—which was rarely tapped for pollution response—were lowered in the past decade because of a surplus of cash, the fund now spends about NZ$1 million more per year than it makes, according to a February review of New Zealand’s Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response Capability.

Similarly, transport ministers have missed the opportunity to sign a “vital protocol to an international convention on oil clean-up cost-sharing that would have doubled the amount New Zealand could demand from ships that caused oil pollution,” according to BusinessDesk. (Although the protocol isn’t named, most likely it’s the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds supplementary fund. New Zealand is a member of the primary fund, but hasn’t opted into supplementary membership.) The past two Ministers of Transport weren’t told about the protocol, according to the article.

Miscommunication and laid-back timelines aside, the Rena's grounding is likely to change things for the ministry. As the spill's effects spur protests against offshore drilling, and pictures of penguins that need sweaters grab heartstrings, officials will need to move to a different understanding of oil spill readiness.

"It's always been understood the government would write the cheque for the clean-up and seek payment from the owners," Pfahlert told BusinessDesk. “It was not well understood that no country in the world planned to be fully equipped for worst case scenarios.”