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Frank
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Every day is a learning experience when it comes to this government’s errors of judgment.
The fuel insecurity crisis triggered by the Iran war has led to the revelation that Australia’s aviation industry is dependent on Beijing’s goodwill.
Not only is roughly 30 per cent of aviation fuel coming directly from China, something in the order of 90 per cent passes third-hand across the communist empire.
While our Prime Minister signs high-level defence pacts and shakes hands on Aukus to defend against the imminent threat of Chinese expansion into the Pacific, Canberra has left most of its critical fuel supplies tied to China.
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China, the ally many governments have cuddled up to as the next great protector despite their brutal communist regime embracing expansionism, environmental catastrophe, and casually violating human rights, has cut us off from critical oil shipments without warning. Did Parliament forget China’s bullying during Covid when we asked a few honest questions about dodgy labs in Wuhan collapsing the world’s economy?
So much for being friends. They are fair-weather trade partners, at best.
Asian fuel shortages and a desert of supply after April has come as a genuine shock … to Canberra. To everyone else, it was obvious.
Forget about the Middle Eastern oil crisis for a moment, it would be fascinating to know what Albanese’s plan was going to be if China moved on Taiwan later in the year, as they have promised.
If we were forced to enter a Pacific conflict, even in a defensive capacity, did Canberra imagine China would continue shipping our jet fuel? What was the contingency plan? How did we stand there shaking hands on the Aukus arrangement knowing we were strategically neutered by our supply lines?
Why were none of these questions asked or answered?
Even if we can use our LNP shipments to pressure China into delivering, this problem needs a long-term solution. ...
In the 1990s Australia was close to entirely self-sufficient in refined fuels. Upwards of 95 per cent of our fuel was processed here. We were independent. Powerful. And insulated from global conflict.
If this war had happened then, we wouldn’t even blink. Government obsession over climate change policy is largely to blame for the situation Australia finds itself in, and both sides of government have utterly filthy hands.
But more than that, it was a mindset shift that saw convenience as preferable to resilience. Shame on those cowards who sold our sovereignty. This is a self-inflicted crisis that the government had no social licence to create. Now, the people of Australia will suffer.
Businesses will go. Jobs will go. Families will be separated. And the government will use the same emotional we’re all in this together framing to gaslight people into thinking this is some sort of Act of God to overcome instead of a political failure. Spectator Australia
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