The Rongo Register · A shared language for what things mean

Words shape
decisions.
Undefined words
shape them badly.

Every day, governments, organisations, systems, and people use terms that sound precise — and mean something slightly different to everyone in the room. Often nobody notices. Sometimes the consequences are significant. The Rongo Register exists to change that. It is not an opinion platform — it is a structured way to describe what terms actually contain, so decisions can be made from a shared foundation.

See a live example What The Rongo Register is
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"One of the most difficult sentences in public life is not the one that is false. It is the one that sounds precise but contains no agreed meaning."
— Sam Ragnarsson, Rongo

A statistic without a shared definition is not information. It is the appearance of information. Decisions made on it are not wrong because anyone intended harm — they are wrong because every person and every system in the chain interpreted the same words through their own frame of reference. And those frames do not always match. Not each other. Not the original intent. Not the reality being described.

A worked example — New Zealand, April 2026

What does "52 days of diesel" actually mean?

Throughout March and April 2026, figures like this appeared regularly in official MBIE updates, media coverage, and parliamentary debate as New Zealand monitored the impact of Middle East conflict on global fuel supply. It sounds like a fact. Watch what happens when we look at what it actually contains.

The official statement
"New Zealand currently has 52.2 days of diesel available."
MBIE Fuel Stocks Update — data collected 11:59pm Sunday 29 March 2026
What many people hear
New Zealand has 52 days of diesel. If no more fuel arrived, we would run out in roughly seven weeks. This is the plain-language reading — and it is not unreasonable. It is simply not the complete picture.
What it officially means
Diesel stocks held by obligated fuel importers in registered bulk storage facilities, expressed as days of national average consumption. Governed by the Fuel Industry Act 2020 and the Fuel Industry Regulations 2021.
This sounds definitive — but it is only one layer of the picture.
How it is reported
The figure is a point-in-time snapshot, reported by fuel importers themselves and collected at a single moment each reporting period, then expressed as days-of-cover. It also includes diesel on ships inside New Zealand's 200-nautical-mile EEZ — fuel that is 1–2 days from port but not yet physically on land.
What sits outside the measure
The figure covers only wholesale bulk storage at import terminals. It does not include diesel held in farm storage tanks across the country — which by rough estimate could account for a substantial additional volume. Nor diesel in industrial sites, commercial transport depots, or backup power facilities. Each of these layers exists. None are counted in the official figure.
What the regulation was designed to do
The MSO minimum was set to broadly reflect the stockholding levels the industry was already holding — to avoid requiring significant new infrastructure investment. According to MBIE's own Regulatory Impact Statement, the levels were chosen specifically so the obligation was "unlikely to require additional bulk storage infrastructure to be developed." The regulation was designed to prevent deterioration, not to improve resilience.
Source: MBIE Regulatory Impact Statement — Minimum Fuel Stockholding Obligation Design, April 2023 · regulation.govt.nz
Further context worth understanding
The government's fuel priority rationing framework — which determines who receives fuel during a disruption — operates at a different layer from the bulk storage figure. The 52-day number describes what is held and where. It does not, by itself, describe how accessible that fuel would be under different disruption scenarios, or how it would be allocated. These are separate and important questions.
None of this is hidden. All of it is in publicly available legislation and regulatory documents. The Rongo Register is working to bring these layers together in one place — so that anyone who needs to understand a term can start from a shared foundation, rather than each building their own.

The claim "52 days of diesel" is not false. It is not even misleading, necessarily. But it is incomplete in ways that matter for every decision being made using it.
Browse The Rongo Register →
The same pattern, everywhere

This is not a problem unique to government or policy. It runs through every complex system.

In a world of increasing complexity, language gets simplified under pressure. Organisations develop their own shorthand. Systems pass data between each other without shared definitions. Nobody is acting in bad faith — but the gap between what a term means in one place and what it means in another can quietly influence decisions made downstream. This happens in healthcare procurement, in food labelling, in environmental reporting, in how software systems share records. Here are five examples.

Healthcare
"We spend $X billion on mental health."
What counts as spending on mental health? Allocated or disbursed? Does it include GP prescriptions, kaupapa Māori community support, or the unpaid work of family carers? The boundary of the term shapes what the number contains.
Environment
"NZ will be carbon neutral by 2050."
What is "carbon neutral"? Zero emissions, offset, or net? What is in scope? Agricultural methane? Embedded emissions in imported goods? The definition of the term determines whether the claim is achievable — and by whom.
Agriculture
"Farmers use 80% of New Zealand's freshwater."
According to Te Ara, approximately 80% of water extracted in New Zealand is used for agricultural irrigation. But "extracted" water is a specific measure — not total freshwater. What is included, what is returned, and at what point in the water cycle the measurement is taken all affect what the number actually means.
Transport
"Road fatalities are down X% this year."
What counts as a road fatality? Within how many days of an accident? Does it include pedestrians and cyclists? How are multi-vehicle incidents attributed? The methodology behind the number shapes what the trend is actually telling us.
Food systems
"NZ produces enough food for 40 million people."
What is "food" in this context? Export-grade produce only? What processing and distribution infrastructure is assumed to exist? What does "enough" mean — calories, or nutritional adequacy? Each assumption changes the picture significantly.
The pattern
A claim is made. A term goes undefined. Everyone proceeds on their own understanding.
The Rongo Register is building a shared place to ask what we actually mean — so the conversation can start from a common foundation.

When we take the time to understand what a term actually measures — and what it leaves out — the conversation that needs to happen often looks different from the one already underway. Sometimes more nuanced. Sometimes more urgent. Almost always more useful.

What The Rongo Register is

A shared language for what things mean. Not a dictionary. Not a glossary. Something more useful than both.

01
For everyone
Anyone can search The Rongo Register. No account needed to read a term. A journalist checking a claim, a citizen trying to understand a policy, a student researching a topic, a software team aligning on a field name — all should find something useful in under a minute.
02
For data and systems work
When two systems share the same field name, they need to mean the same thing. The Rongo Register provides a source-grounded reference with a stable identifier, a citable origin, and a clear description of what is and is not included in a term's scope.
03
Source-grounded
Every term traces back to a verifiable source — legislation, published standards, or documented institutional usage. We do not invent meanings. We find, record, and contextualise what is already there. Our goal over time is for domain experts and organisations to contribute and expand the register.
Each term starts with clarity. Some go further.

Not every term needs deep analysis. Many simply need a clear, citable definition — and that is enough. For terms used in measurement, reporting, or decision-making, The Rongo Register can add further layers: how the term is applied in practice, what reported figures actually capture, what sits outside the boundary of the measure, and where the gaps are. The depth follows the need.

What the term means
The stated definition
Where the term comes from. What it means in the place or system it belongs to. What version or context it applies within. Enough for anyone to understand what is being said.
Present in every term
How it gets used
Application and measurement
How the term is applied in practice. What gets counted, how it is reported, and what the number looks like when a different but equally valid interpretation is applied.
Where relevant · Measurement terms
What it leaves out
Boundary and context
What exists in the real world that the definition does not capture. Not a criticism — simply the honest picture of where a term's boundary sits, and what that means for decisions made using it.
Where relevant · Complex or contested terms
A few clarifications

What to expect from The Rongo Register — and what not to.

Not this
  • A government database or official publication
  • A tool to challenge or embarrass any specific organisation
  • A prescriptive standard that tells people what terms should mean
  • A replacement for existing standards, glossaries, or data dictionaries
  • A media organisation or advocacy platform
  • A substitute for expertise or specialist knowledge
  • A system that requires any organisation to change how they use terms internally
But this
  • A register founded and maintained by Rongo, with every term traced to a verifiable source
  • A place where meaning is unearthed, not invented — we record what is already there
  • A tool that adds context to what terms mean in specific places and systems
  • A complement to existing standards and glossaries — adding layers of context they were not designed to provide
  • A resource working toward informed conversation, not correction
  • A starting point that will grow — with the goal of broader expert contribution over time
  • A challenge to anyone using a term to ask: are we all talking about the same thing?
Get involved

Are we talking about the same thing?

That question — deceptively simple, structurally important — is why Rongo exists. If you know a term being used in public life, in your industry, or between systems that nobody has properly defined, we would like to hear about it. If you work in a domain where undefined language is creating real problems, let's talk.

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