It is widely claimed, correctly in my opinion, that any government’s first responsibility is to secure the ongoing safety of its citizens.

Safety from invasion or takeover by another force.

Safety from disease or famine.

Safety from extreme weather events.

If we think of this doctrine in relation to Australia, we must first realise that being an island in the Southern Ocean, while providing some geographic protection, makes us vulnerable to blockades.

Recent, relatively minor events in the Middle East have quickly made Australia’s fuel scarce and expensive.

Where would we be if our imported fuel supply was cut off completely?

Sober consideration of this situation demands that we, as a nation, take immediate steps to become self-sufficient in all of the basic necessities required for everyday life.

We have certainly done that with food and water, providing we build more dams.

We can maintain self-sufficiency with power supply as long as we remove the bumptious Bowen from the exercise.

Our telecommunications and transport networks are workable and sustainable.

We manage the housing of our people and their businesses with world’s best standards.

However, our productive capacity can be brought to a halt by cutting off our fuel supply which mostly comes from Singapore and Asia via the Middle East. It is equally true that Australia could experience similar disruption by the deliberate act of a well-equipped neighbour if they were determined to do so.

The development of this weak point sits at odds with the government’s first responsibility.

Can we fix this?

Can we become self-sufficient in all of our fuel needs?

The answer to both questions is yes, and this is how we must do it.

The Arckaringa Basin in the northeast of South Australia was initially reported with extremely optimistic oil reserves of over 233 billion barrels in place in 2013. More recent reports are much more pessimistic, but this is hardly the only basin. Australia is littered with fuel resources.

We know oil of this nature is recoverable because the Americans obtain a large percentage of their fuel from similar shale rock deposits using horizontal fracking. That they do this efficiently is obvious from the price of ‘gas’ in USA.

Here is a practical plan to make our nation self-sufficient in fuel…

We build a modern town on the east-west rail line over the Arckaringa deposits (or similar) to house the workers needed to develop this nation building resource. Water for the town could be piped from the Murray River, while sufficient power for this ongoing project would require the recommissioning of the Leigh Creek coal-fired power station.

Using the same horizontal fracking procedures developed in the USA, we develop this resource making Australia fuel self-sufficient for over 300 years. While we are developing and using this huge resource, we should also allow companies to develop our crude oil deposits in the Great Australian Bight, and we would become an oil exporting nation.

What a turn-around! What an improvement to our balance of payments. What a solid foundation to our standard of living.

Do we have leaders in Parliament with the vision, the drive, and the determination to do this? Sadly, I doubt it. But with self-sufficiency in fuel as well as water, power, and resource inputs we could be a manufacturing powerhouse.

While ever we have leaders and their mandarins in Canberra more interested in their own future, rather than the future of our nation, our future will be fracked instead of the shale rock South Australia.