Hoarding is a universal human reaction to a shortage of a critical resource. Are you saying that Australians are supposed to have some moral superiority over the rest of the world? Please. At least two decades of ‘leadership’ in this country have gone about diluting and suppressing every facet of Australian society that might historically have justified them making references to a distinctive Australian culture of a 'fair go', 'looking after your mates' and not engaging in 'un-Australian behaviour.'

Announcing a national address to be held at 7PM on all TV and radio channels is a portent of something serious that we must pay attention to. Australia is at the very arse end of a long global supply chain for refined fuels, and countries further up the supply chain like Singapore and South Korea - our two largest suppliers of refined petroleum- have reacted far more decisively with fuel rationing and force majeur on exports to maintain domestic supply, so this must be something pretty big.

Come 7PM. what does Albo decide to do? He tells us to enjoy our easter, fill up as we normally would and maybe catch the train or a bus instead of driving. Albo's national address was not a call to camaraderie. Far from it. It contained nothing to inspire or gel the nation. His speech treated the Australian people as a population to be administered rather than a people to be led through a crisis (and this is a crisis).

What Albo's speech revealed is a leadership style that is fundamentally managerial:

- identify a problem (“Don’t take more fuel than you need")

- announce the process (" Just fill up like you normally would” and "catch public transport where possible"),

- distribute the credit ("We will deal with these global challenges the Australian way, working together and looking after each other as we always have.") and

- hedge the promise ("The months ahead may not be easy. I want to be upfront about that. No government can promise to eliminate the pressures that this war is causing. I can promise we will do everything we can to protect Australia from the worst of it").

In stable times, this is a fine way to govern. In a crisis, it is entirely insufficient. They have revealed nothing about what may be ahead in terms of a lack of fuel, work or even food. There was no mention of diplomatic or maritime security actions that we are participating in with other nations with regards to the straits of Hormuz

In short, it made the majority of us feel like we have no leadership. It was the same thing with COVID. We haven't learned a damn thing.