LABOR FINALLY WAKES UP TO FUEL SECURITY ISSUE

LABOR Leader Anthony Albanese was recently seen making statements about fuel supply in this country.

Albo pontificated — in light of startling facts related to Australia’s liquid fuel security — that “we need a strong policy” on fuel.

Well, Albo, the facts are that “policy” has nothing to do with it.

The constitutional contract — and a binding contract it is — grants the heads of power to the government of the day on the proviso that that government provides for “peace, order and good government”.

Those last three words have a plain meaning, and have nothing to do with “policy” but everything to do with “duty”.

In 2013, New South Wales’s NRMA released a liquid fuel security report that it — not the government — had commissioned, in which the author, retired Air Vice-Marshall John Blackburn, warned that Australia could run dry of liquid fuel in a matter of a few days.

Blackburn said that Australia was a signatory to an international treaty that requires Australia to have at least three months of liquid fuel reserves — something the Americans call strategic reserves.

A Labor government was in power at that time, and had obviously failed to set up the required fuel stocks.

I do not know when that agreement was signed, but do know that long-time Labor figure Martin Ferguson has said that the $300 million required to establish the reserves was “too expensive”. That amount is chicken feed, in the scheme of things, but apparently, $140-odd million was not too huge an amount for our government to recently give to Vietnam for that country’s government to train its people to slaughter their animals humanely.

Given the above, and other vast amounts given to overseas interests, it seems our governments of both stripes, over many years, have had some warped priorities.

This is a disgraceful situation and a massive failure, which should never have existed. And now, having known of the problem for many years, Albo and Labor in their all-encompassing wisdom finally decide they needs a policy. Gee whiz!

Our local member Richard Marles should have raised the matter in parliament, as I contacted Richard years ago (and also recently, to no avail) when I found out about the report but never received anything but automated replies from his office.

Today I will be sending another request in the hope that he might actually, finally, schedule a meeting with me and the friends I wish to take. Gary Oraniuk, Geelong West