The effect of the Iran war on Australia can be summarised in a single word: stagflation. The brutal combination of higher inflation and weaker growth is coming our way.

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There's a popular argument on what we should do about this. Australia should comply with International Energy Agency obligations and stockpile 90 days-worth of oil imports. If Australia did this, the argument goes, we could buffer our economy from this global shock.

This is the argument being hurled at the government by the opposition and a bunch of commentators. The argument is clear and intuitive. It's also wrong and hypocritical.

The hypocrisy is obvious. Australia has failed to comply with this IEA obligation since it was created in 1974. The Coalition has been in power for more than half this time, and many of those calling for urgent action were cabinet ministers in those governments.

Crying foul over inaction from the Albanese government is a bit rich to say the least. But the biggest problem isn't hypocrisy, it's that the idea itself is bad policy.

Estimates vary, but they all conclude that the cost of developing a 90-day stockpile of oil in Australia will run into the tens of billions of dollars.

It is exorbitantly expensive. Is there nothing better we could spend that money on to insulate us from global oil shocks?

If we get into the data, an answer stands out.

Australia currently has 36 days of petrol in reserve. If we analyse this over time, we find that about 1.2 days of this has come from Australia's adoption of electric vehicles.

To be clear, Australia's adoption of electric vehicles is low. Just 2 per cent of our passenger cars are battery EVs, compared to more than 30 per cent for Norway.

But herein lies the opportunity. If Australia got its battery and hybrid EV uptake up to the level of Norway, our petrol reserves would go from 36 days to........

© Canberra Times