Hand-wringing over soaring fuel prices is a national obsession but, sadly, it is not matched by the quiet reflection this moment warrants - either as a nation, a parliament, or as individuals.

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Such introspection might raise unpalatable truths around governmental negligence, hyper-partisanship, consumer choice and our obligation to leave the world in better shape than we found it.

For some, nothing ever changes. We've come to expect a certain prideful ignorance from right-wing populists and their media shills.

Even during what Anthony Albanese has noted is the biggest fuel price spike in history, the strident anti-renewables crowd will not admit they were wrong in sticking to crude oil, like, err, crude oil.

Decades have been lost during which Australia might have achieved energy self-sufficiency, incentivising a rapid electrification of its vehicle fleet, also.

Instead, the nation has bickered and guzzled.

Thanks to opportunists who tapped into a wilful anti-intellectual streak, past attempts to put a dollar-per-tonne price on emissions were scuppered. Politics overwhelmed policy.

The result, in national interest terms, is baleful mediocrity. Vulnerability in place of resilience. Incremental shimmying when step-change was required.

Confrontingly, however, the fanatical fossil-fringe is not the only section of our community that should reflect.

The fairytale of infinite oil abundance turns out to be more widely held than that.

It is woven into the wide brown land's plunderous fabric.

For a start, governments at all levels, have not merely continued our urban sprawl, but have accelerated it, building far-flung dormitory suburbs, and vastly expensive, car-reliant infrastructure.

At the same time, Australians themselves - particularly as the climate problem has worsened - have responded perversely by opting for ever-bigger houses and ever-heavier vehicles.

Egged on by generous tax incentives such as the instant asset write-off for small businesses, there is a strong element of personal exceptionalism here.

Somehow, and without us really noticing, our everyday commuters have become immodestly large. Antisocially so.

Consider these two things in parallel: a rising global temperature, and the consistent trends in the top ten new vehicle sales in Australia in 2025:

Ford Ranger ute - 56,555 (-9.6 per cent)

Toyota RAV4 medium SUV - 51,947 (-11.5per cent)

Toyota HiLux ute - 51,297 (-4.1 per cent)

Isuzu D-Max ute - 26,839 (-11.1 per cent)

Ford Everest large SUV - 26,161 (-1.3 per cent)

Toyota LandCruiser Prado large SUV - 26,106 (+166.3 per cent)

Hyundai Kona small SUV - 22,769 (+31.1 per cent)

Mazda CX-5 medium SUV - 22,742 (-0.4 per cent)

Mitsubishi Outlander medium SUV - 22,459 (-18.7 per cent)

Tesla Model Y medium SUV - 22,239 (+4.6 per cent)

To be clear, the last of these rides is electric and others may have a hybrid option.

But like Eric Olthwaite's famous black pudding where "even the white bits are black," when it comes to our preferred vehicles, even the smallest ones are pretty big.

How big? Most barely fit in conventional car spaces. A panel-beater told me recently, the new carpark squeeze has brought an epidemic of waist-high door dings - mostly on the upper-panels of lower cars. He seemed happy.

On the roads, these intimidatory behemoths dictate new terms like some kind of rolling force majeure.

Their towering presence (one is even called 'Everest') transmits a lofty indifference to 'lower' road users - motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians in particular.

Road-based aggression aside, consider the demanding physics and hostile economics of all this.

Massively heavy wheels shod with colossally expensive tyres and huge braking systems. The rubber usage alone and extra friction must be cumulatively substantial - costly too, in nationwide fuel consumption. Not to mention the fuel expended accelerating and braking vehicles weighing as much as two and three tonnes.

The engineering - heavy-duty transmission, brakes and suspension - has to be bigger, owing more to truck specifications than cars. They take more to build and use more fuel to motivate.

Again, this is our response to a heating planet?

The human eye quickly adjusts to a new normal, so it is only in side-by-side comparison that our avaricious drift towards supersizing is obvious.

Holdens and Fords, and even the big Jags of the 1970s and 80s, now look dainty when you spot one in a carpark, especially as they are often canyoned-in by the 'commuter' trucks around them.

But it is when you drive one of these older marques that you really feel it.

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First, you can often see just one car ahead in traffic, leaving you to rely entirely on the competence and attentiveness of the SUV driver in front. At night you get what feels like continuous high-beam in your mirrors because the tail-gating half-truck behind has his halogens set at your roof level - even on low beam. It is blinding and unsafe.

Right now, you may be muttering contempt for your columnist and listing the compelling reasons why, in your case, such a conveyance is appropriate.

Fair enough. Undoubtedly, there are some who need these giants for their work or family - especially in the regions. But surely, not everyone on the urban roads can claim that?

The 1970s OAPEC oil shock is credited with prompting Americans to finally ditch ostentatious size for more compact cars.

Half a century later, I wonder how it is that we have all quietly crept back there.

Perhaps, if rescuing the planet has stopped being motivational, the current fuel price signal will prove persuasive?

Mark Kenny is The Canberra Times' political analyst and a professor at the ANU's Australian Studies Institute. He hosts the Democracy Sausage podcast. He writes a column every Sunday.

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