At this moment, grubby populism won’t help Australia. So why fuel it?

April 18, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

The fire at Geelong’s oil refinery flared like a distress beacon for Australia’s ability to function in the new reality of an open-ended global disarray.

In a country that imports 80 to 90 per cent of its refined liquid fuels, the 72-year-old Geelong plant supplies half of the rest. It’s been kept going only by a government subsidy.

If the head of the refinery’s owner, Viva Energy’s Scott Wyatt, is right, the fire will not be consequential for either price or supply of fuel. It’ll be a momentary scare, if so.

But the event reminds us that Australia is structured for a smoothly functioning clockwork system in a world that is now haywire. The prime minister himself had to go shopping in Asian capitals to buy fuel and fertiliser like an overpaid buying agent.

He can’t do this every time there is a global disruption. Because it’s a permanent condition.

Former World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said the global system of “just in time” supply lines had been replaced by “just in case”. In other words, as he said: “It’s all about resilience now.” That was six years ago. We’ve been slow to absorb the lesson.

The global pandemic of 2020-22 won’t be the last one we confront; the economic punishment imposed on Australia by Beijing won’t be its last effort to coerce us; Donald Trump’s war on Iran won’t be the last lethal thunderbolt he throws; Hormuz won’t be the last vital commercial artery to be closed. And the climate will keep changing regardless of how many other crises we must manage.

No country can be entirely self-sufficient. The closest is North Korea with its ruinous “Juche” policy of autarky. Mind you, even Kim Jong-un has to import a couple of absolutely essential national needs – cognac for himself and nuclear weapon technology for his regime.

But every responsible country needs to provide its people with continuity of essentials. Albanese on Friday touched on how his government will address resilience in the budget due in four weeks.

“We have very much a Future Made In Australia agenda that’s about making sure that our economy is more resilient,” he said. “And one of the themes of the budget on May 12 will be resilience; resilience in two forms. One, making more things here in........

© The Age