The most important issue this week was Labor’s desperate ‘don’t panic!’ messaging.
Government officials claimed the problem was not a low fuel supply, but high demand. Australia has a jerry can apocalypse. There is a surge of ‘farm thieves’ cutting locks and raiding rural properties. Tractors are being drained and parked cars siphoned like it’s season three of The Walking Dead.
The price of fuel is about to hit $3 per litre, interest rates have tagged along, and the cost of living has soared. But don’t worry, Chalmers has a ‘bold Budget’ planned. Who’s excited for tax reform…?!
Internationally, one Australian Defence Force base in the UAE caught a glancing blow from Iran, luckily with no casualties. The Strait of Hormuz looks like a ‘mostly peaceful’ pro-Palestinian protest on the Opera House steps. Only 100 ships have made it through since in March, belonging to Iran, China, India, and Pakistan.
Labor’s plan? They created a new ‘national cabinet’. This is indicative of Anthony Albanese’s signature problem-solving technique. Create a problem – swoop in as our saviour. He has allowed our energy crisis to fully mature, then appointed a senior climate official to politely ask it to behave.
Anthea Harris is the Fuel Tsar. Her resume includes performing a key role in establishing the Climate Change Authority. Fresh from assuring us that fossil fuels are heading for dignified retirement, she will now be ensuring their supply and delivery across the country.
Geography should be a virtue for Australia, instead our hopeless ministers have turned distance into a catastrophe. Our refineries were shuttered, reserves minimised, sulphur standards waived for dirtier imports, and supply lines disrupted 15,000 km away. The obvious fix? More coordination from a government that helped create the vulnerability. And today? NSW Labor announced a ban on new coal mines.
Trusting Labor is like leaving a radical blue-haired vegan to oversee the abattoirs.
Regional service stations have entered a phase of selective hospitality. Diesel has reached prices that encourage philosophical reflection. I drive, therefore I am…? Truck drivers study the pump displays with the quiet intensity of art critics. Panic buying has returned, though this time it’s less toilet paper and more unleaded.
The government released six days’ worth of petrol and five days’ worth of diesel from the emergency stockpile to get us through Easter if everybody, including truck drivers, work from home. The ACCC has been dispatched to have stern words with fuel companies about pricing. Tanya Plibersek continues to spruik electric trucks, the ones nobody has ever seen on a highway south of the equator.
Adding insult to injury, the Reserve Bank delivered a split-decision interest-rate rise, lifting the cash rate to 4.1 per cent. Households face fuel queues by day and higher repayments by night. They are experiencing what economists call a compounding effect and what the rest of us call Tuesday.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ kinder economy has revealed itself to be kinder chiefly to those who do not drive, eat, or pay bills.
Inflation expectations have climbed to the highest since 2023 at 5.2 per cent while the official CPI is still too high at 3.8 per cent. Fuel is the headline act, but Labor’s energy transition provided the venue, the lighting, and the complimentary matches.
Meanwhile, Trump has been tapping his feet, wondering where his allies are… America has spent decades supporting their defence. Of course, they said ‘no’ when he asked for help. Diplomacy and dialogue remain our best defence against radical Islamic regimes hell-bent on destroying us – except when it comes to dialogue between allies.
Consequently, Canberra’s response has been admirably restrained. If Labor doesn’t participate in it, then it is an exogenous shock that we couldn’t avoid.
No ships committed, a single Wedgetail for observational duties, a small quantity of AMRAAM missiles sent to the UAE framed as defensive assistance, and three ADF personnel sleeping in their racks on a US submarine that was actively engaged in destroying our mutual enemy.
Where are our warships? Evidently otherwise engaged. Our surface fleet, projected to shrink to nine combatants by year’s end, has a generous portion in dry dock or maintenance purgatory. It is ideally positioned for this moment of global maritime attentiveness. Nothing conveys alliance reliability quite like arriving fashionably late with half the navy on blocks.
In politics, South Australia heads to the polls for an almost certain Labor Malinauskas victory and an uncertain Opposition. Perhaps the Coalition will survive to fight another day. Hopefully against Labor and not themselves.
Unemployment went up which is good for inflation but not the poor buggers who are now out of work. With our collective arses hanging out of our national trousers, perhaps Jimbo can buy them some government jobs?
Albo and Tony Burke had their feathers ruffled at a mosque with their startled faces turned into a meme. Despite courting their local voters, they were heckled and exited stage left to avoid protests over Labor’s participation in the so-called Palestine genocide. This is a fact, you see, according to the UN and the Palestinian Health Authority…
What did you miss? A government that rationed emergency fuel by the teaspoon, oversaw rising interest rates while inflation burned from fuel spikes, ghosted our major ally’s call for naval support, and assigned fuel-supply oversight to the climate-policy division.
Labor is carefully orchestrating the end of capitalism in Australia. Albo is on the train, and the rest of the socialist circus is awaiting his arrival in Marrickville. They’re keen to participate in the dictatorship of the work-from-home government employees and commence the Great Leap Backwards.
With a bit of luck, Albo’s on a diesel train and he’ll be stuck somewhere in the boonies for quite a while.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.
