The current pandemic has exposed the fragility of Australia’s supply chain. This is not a new development. We’ve actually discussed it indirectly.
Australia can be self-sufficient in energy. The problem is that we’ll need to invest. Sadly, successive Conservative governments have shown that they’re terrified of spending (both of Australia’s major political parties are Conservative - it’s just a matter of degree). As I’ve heard said: “terrified of the cost of everything and blind to the value of anything”. They viewed strategic reserves solely in terms of cost - didn’t see the value.
Truckies have slammed the decision to store Australia’s emergency fuel in the US.
Australian Trucking Association chair Geoff Crouch said it put the country’s national security at risk, with the fuel taking too long to reach Australia if it were desperately needed.
“No fuel means supermarkets would go empty, medicines wouldn’t get delivered and rubbish bins wouldn’t get emptied,” he said.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the fuel should be in Australia, with the government breaching international regulations by keeping it overseas.
“Having something in the United States doesn’t provide for our national interests,” he told ABC on Wednesday.
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SueW
23 April 2020 17:54
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Madness. They want to set up a fuel reserve over there and think that Trump won’t raid it? Are they completely stupid?
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Probably safest to stockpile it ourselves.
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No comment!
As the trucker said, the fuel will not be available as and when we need it. On the face of it, the behaviour is monumentally idiotic.
Safest, yes. Until 2012, we did maintain a 90-day onshore fuel reserve. Now, we no longer have the necessary storage.
This is old and the disruption is economic, not pandemic, but does show some of the risks. Our economy has been made ever-more fragile in the pursuit of cheapness. Can we afford to carry on in that direction? What can we do to make both our economy and our society more robust? No, I’m not suggesting that we hoard gold.
If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely...
Est. reading time: 7 minutes
An apocalyptic vision that popped up in my Google search results:
Two groups inhabit the desolate and abandoned land: packs of orphaned children in a feral state, living a nomadic life-style for their safety, and adults (with their offspring), barely surviving any better by living off their meat. It is a war only the most desperate of the two will win.
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A piece from tonight’s ABC 7.30. The risks are largely supply-chain related.
Not quite sure this belongs here, but why not? The possibility of bringing service supply back on-shore is mentioned.
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Focused on the UK, but interesting insights into the little (and not-so-little) things that a nation needs to be able to do.
And one from a couple of days ago that focuses on Ausralia:
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