Editorial

The fuel crisis has thrown the spotlight on how the nation has found itself in this position and what can be done to protect against a repeat in the future.

The new measures announced by the Albanese Government are part of a sensible approach that is welcome in an environment of uncertainty.

The daily information overload around the impact of the war is obscuring the need for thoughtful long-term planning.

The nation needs to hear very clearly where we stand as oil and diesel anxieties worsen. Our leaders must step up.

This is a disastrous time to allow unions to apply a handbrake in the engine room of the national economy. The Albanese Government has built the union handbrake into the system. It must act to release it.

The red lights are flashing about the need to rein in the unions. Unless Jim Chalmers pays heed to the warnings, his Budget speech will be an other exercise in missed opportunity.

The way out of this crisis depends significantly on Donald Trump and the leaders of Iran. But what ever happens from here, we are in for a rough time.

The uncertainty around so much of modern life has created a ready-made audience for the messages delivered by One Nation.

If you didn’t spend $5 on sausages but spent it on something else instead you have still spent $5. That ain’t a saving.

The notion that somehow we can just buckle up and wait out the Trump presidency before things ‘return to normal’ has no validity.

Don’t hold your breath for Treasurer Jim Chalmers to acknowledge the Government has been part of Australia’s economic problem.

If the nations Donald Trump has named don’t agree to help in the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might get a phone call.

It seems unthinkable that we would refuse a US request as it takes on the burden of a war. So why won’t the Government tell us what the US wants and what we have done about it?

The Albanese Government must act before the fuel crisis turns into a full-blown economic crisis.

Can anybody really imagine we would now turn down a request from our most significant ally and security blanket?

If confronted by the need to make a split-second decision, the Australian personnel in the region will not have time to sit back and ponder how to respond.

Should they seek asylum in this country, their families in Iran face imprisonment or worse. If that has not happened already.

Australia’s security has been tied to the US since World War II and remains so. The AUKUS program which has placed our sailors in US facilities is a key part of that.