Australia’s fuel crisis may have been triggered by global conflict – but it reflects decades of political failure to reduce oil dependence and plan for transition.

Are they ignorant fools? Thirty-eight percent of One Nation voters blame the Government for the fuel crisis and only 39 per cent of them blame Trump. Fourteen per cent of voters at large blame the Government, according to an _Australian Financial Review_ poll.

Sure, the Israeli-US attack on Iran – not notified to any US allies – was the immediate cause, but we have known the dangers of concentrated oil dependency on the Middle East for more than half a century. The ease with which the Strait of Hormuz could be blocked by hostile forces or even a maritime accident has been known for longer.

The effect of a Middle East oil squeeze on fuel prices in Australia was experienced more than half a century ago.

If you add actual knowledge of damaging climate change for at least all of this century, maybe it is not so ignorant or foolish for people to blame ’the Government’ or successive governments for the plight we are in. In fairness, maybe some of the foolishness should be sheeted home to those governments.

But that foolishness is much less excusable precisely because it is not coupled with ignorance, but with actual knowledge of what should and could have been done: a massive reduction of oil dependency.

But do we get an apology from former Prime Ministers? From Scott Morrison for his 2019 election campaign reply to Labor’s new-car target of 50 per cent electric vehicles that “Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend”?

Well, whose weekend is destroyed now? Not some hypothetical weekend, but holidays this very Easter weekend have been destroyed by the failure of successive governments........

© Pearls and Irritations