The severity of the global fuel crisis hitting Australia \u2013 that may well reverberate for years to come \u2013 is not because Iran shut the vital Strait of Hormuz. It has resulted from decades of incompetent Australian political leadership.<\/p>\n
This was epitomised recently by Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins saying<\/a> of the current crisis that you can\u2019t predict war.<\/p>\n Well, we can\u2019t predict droughts, so we build dams to ensure water supplies. We can\u2019t predict cyclones and bushfires, but we run resilience community exercises and provide a national disaster fund for Australians affected by natural disasters. We pay insurance to mitigate accidents and disasters.<\/p>\n When it comes to liquid fuel security, Australia has done nothing but demonstrate gross negligence, despite many warnings.<\/p>\n None of the warnings were heeded. None!<\/p>\n Pathetic reserves<\/p>\n Macrobusiness chief economist Leith van Onselen<\/a> reveals that, of 27 Western countries, Australia comes last in terms of national liquid fuel reserves, only about 30 days. The next lowest is Turkey with 100 days, while the Netherlands holds over 400 days of reserves.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s oil exploration expanded after the second world war and again after the 1970s oil shock. However, the mantra that there would be no future oil shocks, that free trade and \u2018the markets\u2019 would guarantee imported supplies and that the nation could reliably run on renewables saw our refineries dwindle from eight in 2000, to just two today. Now, Australia imports around 83 per cent of its liquid fuels (2022), or about 1.1 million barrels per day<\/a>.<\/p>\n Almost all of this comes from refineries in Asia, in particular South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and China. In turn, about 60 to 70 per cent of their crude oil originates in the Middle East, mostly through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n To conserve fuel<\/a> for their own markets, China, Vietnam, and Thailand have banned exports of refined products. South Korea imposed a cap on exports at 2025 levels. The United States may restrict\/ban exports so Trump can keep US petrol prices down in the run-up to November\u2019s mid-term elections.<\/p>\n And if the crisis continues, then the effects on world oil supplies will be prolonged. Gulf states will be forced to shut down refineries when their storages are filled, and wells will also have to stop pumping. These are not easily switched back on again.<\/p>\n Restarting a refinery can take months to being back into production. Wells have to be cleaned and serviced before restarting, which can take months, while heavy crude wells can take years to restart.<\/p>\n How foolish are we?<\/p>\n Chris Bowen\u2019s Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) admits that 90.7 per cent<\/a> of Australia\u2019s total energy use (electricity, vehicles, and industry) comes from fossil fuels, with only 9.3 per cent from renewables. Yet the Labor government pays endless homage to flawed renewables policies, while straitjacketing Australia\u2019s vast underutilised energy resources.<\/p>\n These resources have been documented by Geosciences Australia:<\/p>\n