CAMERON MILNER: Filling up a jerry can in fuel crisis isn’t ‘un-Australian’, it’s sensible

It’s no wonder everyday Australians are taking back control, from voting for One Nation to ensuring their own fuel security by filling up a jerry can.

Australians are fed up with double speak from Canberra and are looking out for their family and jobs.

The nine most frightening words any Australian can hear right now are: “We’re from the Albanese Government, we’re here to help”.

This fuel crisis is entirely Government-delivered.

There’s no filling of jerry cans in Tokyo, because their government made sure they had 240 days of onshore supply, compared to Australia’s barely 30.

The Albanese Government makes up who to blame next at their daily 9am Teams call with Labor press secretaries, while they work from home or embrace inner city free public transport.

The golden rule for these press secs is Albanese never ever wants to own it. Blame Trump, blame the Israelis, blame Scott Morrison. When all else fails, blame Tony Abbott.

This time, it’s Iran.

Rising inflation? Iran. Interest rate rises? Iran. Not enough fuel supplies? Iran.

Albanese initially shirked calls for there to even be a nationally co-ordinated response. It truly was Albanese’s “I don’t hold a hose” moment.

Thank goodness for the voice of reason NSW Premier Chris Minns, whose demands for national leadership saw Albanese shamed into calling National Cabinet meetings.

The most dystopian move of the Albanese Government has been to lash everyday Aussies as being somehow un-Australian for filling up a jerry can.

Albanese met with the head of Bunnings to lament how terrible it was the retailer had run out of jerry cans, only to have the CEO eagerly tell punters Bunnings would soon to be re-stocked. Never miss a sales opportunity in a crisis.

When fuel rationing inevitably kicks in, you can be sure Albanese put the blame on those who took the initiative to stock up. When farmers can’t plant a crop and mines drop shifts because they can’t get diesel, it won’t be a lazy and complacent government but rather voters who are to blame.

It’s not un-Australian to take precautionary measures. After our collective experience of COVID-19, who would ever trust governments to look after our interests in a crisis again?

COVID was a lesson for all: Governments get it wrong. Sometimes really badly wrong.

Pen-pushing public servants — alongside megalomaniac premiers — unleashed sadistic, authoritarian controls over their citizens.

Little wonder then those same Aussies are sceptical of their Government’s ability to handle this next crisis.

The commentariat can sneer all they like, but everyday Aussies are doing what they believe they need to in order to guarantee their personal fuel security.

We had the political class set up a royal commission into the COVID-19 response that specifically excluded State governments from scrutiny. This is despite the lock-downs, the border closures, the quarantine hotels which were all the responsibility of those same governments.

The cruellest confession from that era came last year when Victoria’s COVID-era chief health officer Brett Sutton admitted some of his directives were “a best guess” and “probably never necessary”.

The lesson learnt by Australian citizens was not to blindly trust authorities in a crisis.

The measures announced by the Government are too little, too late.

Australians are right to be worried. We have an unpopular government that’s a policy plodder and utterly rudderless. We have an Opposition facing an existential crisis of its own.

Perhaps One Nation’s surge in support will be the wake up call Canberra needs to realise that blame games aren’t a substitute for leadership.

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has demonstrated some policy clarity, by outlining Australia’s need for a sovereign supply of oil and gas.

Meanwhile, the Queensland Government is looking to fast track a promising oil and gas trough.

We can come through this stronger as a nation, but it will require casting aside climate change ideology that oil and gas are always bad, as well as the belief that the Middle East will ever again be a reliable place from which to source our fuel security.

What the coronavirus pandemic and this oil crisis have shown us is that Australians live in a less secure world. As a nation, we must be more self reliant, and more focused on our own self defence.

Australia should be an oil and gas super power, producing our transport fuels and fertilisers for farmers right here at home.

We need our gas to make urea here in Australia, like the Perdaman plant in WA will do from next year. We need to develop our phosphate reserves without endless green tape.

We need to drill for more oil and explore more gas both onshore and offshore.

Renewables are a valuable part of our energy mix, but the technology is simply not there to satisfy our vast nation’s fuel demands.

Australians need a nation that embraces “drill baby, drill” ethos.

In the meantime, they’ll have to grab a jerry can and “fill baby, fill”.