Australia’s National Cabinet, a group comprising all state and territorial heads and the prime minister, met a couple of hours ago to strategise a solution to the nation’s shortages in petrol and diesel caused by the war in Iran.

Led by Anthony Albanese, who days ago blamed extreme right wing Christians for him being booed by Muslims at a mosque in Sydney, the group came up with a brainstorm.

Tax breaks.

They reduced fuel excises passed onto consumers by petrol giants and eased diesel charges for the transport industry: thereby making buying fuel cheaper, increasing its demand without raising supply, which of course will raise fuel prices even more as supplies dwindle further.

It’s what they didn’t do that matters.

They didn’t ration fuel to take the pressure off demand and protect supply.

No “odds and evens” days to fill up cars. No maximum top up allotments at the bowser. No bans on sticking a bathtub on a trailer and filling it with unleaded. No change to buyer behaviour. And no discussion of Australia’s balance of trade as fuel imports take off like an Iranian ballistic missile.

Which is very odd because Australia has seen fuel rationing in decades past. No one complained, Aussies did their bit and took it in their stride.

So, why the lack of leadership spine now?

National Cabinet made it clear: “they didn’t want a return to Covid measures”. What the heck does that mean?

This is why I’m tired.

As if needing to explain to some why fighting for regime change to bring down the Islamic Republic of Iran that’s built itself on misogyny, summary execution, torture, abuse, bigotry, religious dogma and intolerance wasn’t bad enough.

And as if marches in the West’s streets with Palestinian flags waving alongside pictures of the Ayatollah attended by politicians weren’t alarming enough too.

But it’s in that last bit that there’s the clue.

By “Covid measures” our political leaders, mainly of Labor and its Far Left, were saying that they were spooked by 2020-21’s extremist reactions to mandatory Covid vaccines, isolation, curfews, restrictions on gatherings and above all masking.

So, today we heard not a hint of mandatory impositions on petrol consumerism lest in addled Labor minds, those same pro-Palestine, pro-Islamist anarchists took to the streets screaming “Dictator Albo!”

And that’s the problem.

I say “addled Labor minds” because no one in Labor’s ranks has yet been able to explain how their militant Far Left supporters, who railed abuse at them against masking to prevent the spread of Covid, have had no problem putting on masks for Palestine, hiding their faces behind N95 respirators and above all those cheap Chinese-made, Jordanian-inspired, “keffiyehs”.

With interest rates rising, the balance of trade worsening due to a paucity of critical manufacturing, the impact of 75% of Australia’s refineries now closed for climate campaigns and the cost of food already beyond the reach of too many struggling Aussies, our governments went for a pump drop rather than a supply rise.

Really what does it matter when today, the rights of women to be free from gang rape, beatings and killings at the hands of Iran’s modesty police, get smothered by calls to end the military operation that’s set to overthrow it, purely because the Jewish State of Israel is helping with the fighting?

Six years into Covid-19 and the only thing that’s tested the boundaries of what is right to be mandatory is being politically gutless. We witnessed it today. At our most vulnerable we saw a gathering of a cabinet. And it was the most monumentally stupid.

© 2026 Adam Parker.
Picture credit: © 2026 Adam Parker.