I can’t prove this, but I can tell you that while walking through the upper-middle-class North Shore of Sydney on the weekend, I was passed by an unusual number of stealthy Teslas.

They are native to the area.

There’s always a handful of them taken out for their weekend virtue signal. They are the second or third car of people who decorate their roofs with solar panels to make them feel better about the carbon footprint of frequent international flights.

And don’t get me wrong, I quite like the look of Teslas, even though I’ll never be able to afford so much as a side mirror.

What I’m trying to say is these are luxury cars that dirty their tyres with the same frequency as the mid-life crisis Ferrari.

It is unusual for them to be out on parade, especially with storms lurking about at the edge of the skyline.

Curious about the sheer quantity of Teslas, I took a closer look at the other cars on the road. You guessed it. Hybrids and EVs.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that people (who have the means) are switching to electric cars while fuel prices climb and shortages threaten. No government mandate required. Just a few heart palpitations at the fuel pump.

This is not to say Labor ministers and environmental shills have a point about electric vehicles saving us from the fuel crisis brought on by war in Iran. Electric vehicles present an even greater vulnerability in the long-term.

Logistics first.

While the comfortably well-off using their plus one vehicle to nip a few kilometres into town indicates a change in behaviour, it is not possible to replace Australia’s private transport sector. This is not Europe or the mega-cities of Asia. Australians are driving long distances over rough terrain in areas without reception on a daily basis to keep cities fed and the country moving. One dirt road or flooded town is enough to wipe out electric fleets. I’ve seen it. Semi-trailer after semi-trailer of dead e-things while their diesel cousins are dried off and resurrected. This fragility is particularly true of the cheaper Chinese models that Labor wants to push into the market.

Not only are electric vehicles a poor choice for regional drivers (you are not letting the computer drive on unmarked roads with kangaroos), they are unworkable for most people who live in city apartments. The vast majority of apartment blocks either do not have charging facilities or outright ban the vehicles over insufficient fire safety standards in the building. In my previous, newly built mid-rise complex there were signs on every pillar evicting electric vehicles due to fire safety regulations.

And even if every Australian can be convinced (or forced) to convert to an electric car and the expensive changes are made to regulations and charging, there are other problems to consider.

The first is that we still need fuel for machinery, agriculture, medicine, and the military along with a huge list of essential services. This includes the creation, transport, and installation of renewable energy (which does not function without its fossil fuel cousin). There is no oil replacement for these industries. It must be sourced or we’ll all have to pick up shovels and bayonets.

Second, and this should be obvious to the ministers in charge, switching to electric vehicles replaces one geopolitical threat with another. The vast majority of cheap electric cars headed to Australia are made, either in whole or part, by China. And if they are not made in China, they are almost certainly made from components and natural resources that come from the Chinese supply train. This means that instead of shutting the country down temporarily with an oil shortage that can be negotiated with many other global sources, including our allies, we would have to rely solely on China for the fleet and the renewable energy that powers it. That’s called taking a single, massive national risk.

This hugely vulnerable electric vehicle fleet would be powered from a central, already strained energy grid either powered by fossil fuel or Chinese-sourced renewables. Today, if the power goes off, fuel keeps the country running. If we all drive electric vehicles, one lengthy blackout crashes civilisation. That is the sort of risk our ancestors never would have entertained.

The Labor government has to stop trying to shove its Net Zero agenda into a supply chain-sized hole.

Picking the former head of the Climate Change Authority to oversee fuel security hardly filled the public with confidence. War in Iran is not an opportunity for Bowen and Albanese to shuffle their green delusions around. This is a wake-up call. It demands a serious and critical national security response that ignores the ramblings of apocalyptic slogans and the whispers of renewable lobbyists.

Australia needs its own fuel. Domestic refineries. Strong deals with its firm historical allies. Independence from China. And a nuclear age that shores up the bulk of the energy grid.

A few pretty luxury cars on our wealthy streets might as well be canaries coughing in their gilded cages.