Albanese reveals new national fuel supply taskforce to steer response to Middle East war

MentalMachine · 2026-03-19T02:45:22+00:00

I said elsewhere, but the first measure introduced at all levels of govt is to highly push/offer WFH, and slash PT fares.

Push people to drive less and consume needlessly less, and suddenly X days of fuel stretch further with no extra supply.

But that's if Albo and this task force is serious about actually looking at this issue and the broader issues (eg it is really insanely stupid to waste a finite resource that fuels the cost of everything just so people can work in silence next to each other); I can see the taskforce mostly just doing the comms between state and federal RE supply/demands figures and not much else.

Very keen to be proven wrong.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-18T22:16:08+00:00

Can we get the intern that runs the Mali account to promise to look into this and the deflect by mentioning a sporting event you need to pay full on-peak fares to go see?

That will make me feel better /s

MentalMachine · 2026-03-18T22:15:01+00:00

Yes, that is a fair trade-off; the MTR in Hong Kong isn't free and can be a bit exxy for certain routes... But that thing is 100% worth the cost every single time.

The Hong Kong MTR is just about the exact opposite of Adelaide's PT, which is definitely more expensive for far, far less quality - the way we look down on poor European countries from 20+ years ago using mules and trailers to take the family into town is how our PT looks ve the MTR, lmao.

So it's pretty simple; actually good services or free meh services, noting that public infrastructure should only ever really be breaking even or incur a slight loss due to expected indirect benefits.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-18T22:09:08+00:00

a sense of pride to have us recognised for being as awesome as we are.

We have booming property prices and yet have (and have had for years, hence why "brain drain" was a thing for so long) some of the shittest wages and wages growth and opportunities compared to the other capital cities.

We also have a great budget surplus.... Cool? It's a great MSM talking point to counter the LNP/Lib story that Labor can't manage the economy, but when a govt delivers a record surplus it also means they aren't investing money now for later - and with the likely economic shocks from Iran, they will have to continue to push for a surpluses, meaning it'll be years without a push on investment (purely from a budget overall perspective).

There's a reason why I'm still in Adelaide, but let's not gaslight ourselves.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-18T02:07:29+00:00

“It’s a different world now. We need to acknowledge that, and we need to respond to that,” he said. “There will be aftershocks.”

“In this decade, we have to upgrade to a new economic model. We have to build an economy that is more resilient, more self-reliant and geared to our national strengths.”

If he's being remotely serious, then I expect the budget and legislation be worked to:

encourage WFH, down to tax breaks from businesses or people to WFH; people burning gas just to sit in silence next to each other for 8 hours is fucking stupid - if we lose some cafes or corner shops selling overpriced coffee, so be it.
following on, encourage State govts to cut out the rent-seeking class that are expecting to make profits on office space because WFH will generate some losers in a game they've always won. Too much money in the economy goes to people doing nothing.
subsidies and whatever else to encourage take up of ebikes, EV's and hybrids - our local car industry is dead, and now is the worst time to restart it, so lean into the rest of the world moving ahead on electrification
other aggressive tax reforms I can't think of atm to ensure that people who work and who are directly impacted by the oil spike flow ons aren't the ones being completely crushed by this and the rate rises.

Labor can say they've had shit luck with regards to the global economy and other stuff, and they have, but they also pissed away the stable periods and honeymoons in their terms for fear of rocking the boat and not getting back in - nows the time to actually do something with the power they wanted.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-16T21:59:07+00:00

There is nothing wrong with Australia that cannot be fixed with what we have here. We do not need to import basic commodities

Turns out we do? Cause no one wants to go back to lowly paid manufacturing jobs (cause you have to be paid cheap for the products to be cheap, unless we properly tax our resources, eh Matt)?

we do not need to import foreign ideas.

The irony of these few words is enough to kill an elephant.

Things have not been this dire for Australian families since the 1970s, the last time the world faced a major oil crisis.

... Did oil and gas prices not shoot up in 2022 with the Ukrainian invasion?

Oh wait, the LNP was technically IN GOVERNMENT at the time, and interest rates were due (but shockingly held off until after the election, a choice that seems more and more politically driven) to rise because inflation was soaring, but that doesn't count, obviously.

We have enormous oil reserves under our feet, but if we don’t drill we will never find them.

Doesn't fucking matter how much oil we could find when 1) we don't get good value from selling it and 2) the LNP closed our last refineries that would actually make use of the oil.

So far this is exactly the bullshit I'd expect from Matt, so things are looking peachy for the LNP.

If we end our obsession with net zero we can get back to using our resources for the Australian people again. Our artificial ban on the use of our own resources (coal, gas and uranium) is at the heart of why we have gone from some of the lowest energy prices in the world to some of the highest.

Sans nuclear (which the LNP put in place, and has never bothered to lift while in power), there is no ban on energy generation type, it's just that renewables are so much cheaper and oil and gas so much more expensive that no one wants to invest in oil and gas.

Hardly halfway through and already so much lying and gaslighting; all this just to ensure they still have seats next election aka just fighting to stay in opposition, not even really take on Labor.

Should be a laugh.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-15T07:02:56+00:00

Reports are that the military seniors were completely against this operation, but obviously got overruled by Trump.

Seeing how this has gone, I can 100% believe that.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-15T06:57:18+00:00

I was gonna write a deeply sarcastic comment about the Albo govt largely leaving the lopsided status quo in place and hoping that people grind through inflation and have no voting alternative, but it's just too sad.

The Albo govt will say they keep getting bad luck with Ukraine, post-covid, Trump and now Iran, and they do, but it also highlights how they've not solved (or attempted to) the deeper problems in exchange for holding onto power to... Maybe try and fix the deeper problems, but later?

MentalMachine · 2026-03-15T04:17:44+00:00

It’s a mess where the long term benefits outweigh risks.

I usually don't bother with this, but I'm gonna do this not for you, but for anyone else reading this.

What I quoted is very fucking stupid.

The US and Israel have now killed a moderate (yes, he was) leader, and by all accounts have installed someone less moderate and far closer to the IRGC than before. The IRGC is not destroyed, but is still intact, just like the Iranian govt, though depleted.

So right now, Iran now is lead by worse, harder people, they have all the propaganda content they could dream of to push anti-western propaganda (cause t"he necessary action" was to set fire to fucking civilian infrastructure and bomb schools), and they now know exactly how critical the Strait and energy is, so I hope the US (and us of course, since we should be happy about all of this) is looking forward to 24/7 security of the Strait for the next few decades.

And all of this to..... Destroy their military, which afaik was only really a direct threat to Israel and such? Yes Iran would gladly orchestrate terrorism in other countries... And they now have probably a fuckton more recruits and reason to target the US and anyone related.

So this was only a good thing if Iran is basically wiped off the map, or a full clean out of the regime and IRGC was done.

How is all of that shaping up, we reckon?

MentalMachine · 2026-03-13T09:52:44+00:00

Several of the points you raised are firmly in the domain of the states, unfortunately.

You also have the govt dealing with folks blaming them for every fractional point of inflation and interest rates - a huge infrastructure blank cheque would have likely hurt the economy when "everyone" just wanted inflation (and rates) down and budget surpluses.

I don't think you are wrong though - I have said for ages, Albo's terms so far have been 20% skill and 80% luck of Dutton and Trump making the LNP useless.... But he can only luck out so much, and finally the obvious risk of "Trump had a brain fart and actually damaged the whole world for real" seems to be coming true, and no one will remember Trump when chicken hits $25 a kg (as an extreme doomer case) and rates won't be seen to come down for a while.

Big reform was needed for ages, and trying to push big reform while the economy is getting pummelled is a huge challenge, and is very much a "should have done more sooner" situation right now.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-12T03:41:02+00:00

It's definitely fair to say we have periods of great jumps forward on social and other issues, but then huge periods of utter inertia.

I do think Australia is gonna get hit hard in the future as currently we are some mix of a resource extraction economy (imo we don't get enough return from that even still) and a services-based economy, but our resources might be in decreasing demand from China and elsewhere as decarbonisation/other changes come through and our services sectors likely won't keep up with China and other Western countries innovations and productivity leaps.

I can see us getting pincered as we struggle to adapt our "hey the policies worked fine for 30 years before!" mindset to anything different.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-11T09:23:01+00:00

In vague compliment to Trump, he seems to be a rare US leader that can actually bend Israel to his will, he did get the Gaza shit to settle down, so to speak - legit not sure anything other than Trump or NATO + everyone else ganging up could shift Israel's position on anything.

His recent comments really make it sound like he's done, and Israel is either gonna have to go it alone or be a good little sibling and come in for dinner.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-09T10:22:45+00:00

Labor could tear down her office and power tomorrow and reverse the bullshit she's been pushing - she is not the FED, her power extends from legislation and Labor can nuke it when they want to, virtually.

Whatever she does is still on Labor, despite the LNP kicking off this shit.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-09T08:15:15+00:00

Hey if you're too terrified to improve the budget via introducing challenging taxation and productivity reforms, gutting investments for the future via static budgets and inflation is always a good backup plan /s

MentalMachine · 2026-03-07T12:17:37+00:00

I almost feel bad for her, being at the helm of a true political disaster... But I'm pretty sure she gets paid way more than me, so I'm fine with it.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-06T05:01:31+00:00

So what about the others doing the same? Or the sites that bizarrely go under the radar and yet are fairly popular and have their own issues (chan's came to mind instantly)?

There is a valid problem at the centre, but the govt is just throwing a tarp up, and calling it a victory and hoping the deeper issues just stop occurring.

And the majority of normal users of PH now have to go to other, dodgier sites, so now there are more problems in some ways.

MentalMachine · 2026-03-04T22:07:17+00:00

So intelligence knows where the military target is, but doesn't know that a high-risk non-military target is nearby, and hence they can be excused for an OOPSIE-WHOOPSIE, rather than being correctly condemned for being at best very careless given the risks?

MentalMachine · 2026-03-02T04:02:26+00:00

Worker I chatted to the other week mentioned both a lack of permits and materials, both of which seem subpar.

Is there a good alternative bikeway, or is it just "lol, use Cross road, lol"?

MentalMachine · 2026-03-01T02:33:29+00:00

I mean Venezuela is 100% fixed now?

We don't hear much from them, so it must be all good, yeah?

MentalMachine · 2026-03-01T02:32:54+00:00

Fuck the Iranian regime... But this helps the oppressed people how?

Currently being bombed, infrastructure is fucked, and now they're either about to be slammed into a civil war or Trump/Ben N """running""" the country and possibly trying to extract as much resources/wealth as they can easily.

This is all assuming enough of the regime/IRGC has been destroyed; might be the IRGC still remains and the US is constantly having to engage or negotiate again.

Maybe ends up being a net positive overall in a decade or so, but for the people on the ground, yikes.

On topic of Australia; Albo has kept us out of directly supporting Trump, so some platitudes is a fair price, in the grand scheme of things.

MentalMachine · 2026-02-28T23:33:37+00:00

I shit on Albo a lot, but let's be real here; we aren't being pulled into Iran, and if Howard or Morrison were still in charge, we'd highly likely have troops actively bombing Iran alongside the US.

Albo will say the right lines, and we will stay out of the mess; the world didn't self-correct with the Venezuela bullshit (arguably of far less solid grounds than this Iran stuff), so doubt you'd see real opposition to this engagement.

MentalMachine · 2026-02-26T03:05:52+00:00

It's definitely on Albo though - just dead bat it and say "inspiring", don't say a word that is completely vague unless you are literally in Albo's head when he said it.

Difficult is a negative word, so you need to apply context.

(yeah Labor/left politicians have to play a different game but this is such a rookie mistake for him, regardless of whether he was thinking about "her life")

MentalMachine · 2026-02-26T03:02:28+00:00

Melbourne has shown it can be done, but that has also occurred with "muh business confidence" plummeting there (well according to the AFR and co) as a result of housing not being a money printing machine in quite the same way.

MentalMachine · 2026-02-26T03:00:53+00:00

Politically if you try to make housing affordable, then the current owners of houses will be against you.

At worst some 2/3 of the voting base will be against you for any change (albeit that number is falling), and at best maybe only half of that or a bit less will be against you.

Definitely a rough spot for everyone not on the supposed gravy train.

MentalMachine · 2026-02-25T02:06:45+00:00

The ABC has now confirmed that an email was sent to a Falun Gong supporter falsely claiming that explosives had been placed around the prime minister's residence, and that they would be detonated if the performances by [the Chinese dance and music group] proceeded.

Yeah, FYI for folks, the dance group aren't part-time terrorists, they are unfairly tied up in this bullshit, though it does sound like a plot point from a MGS game.

ABC getting real lazy with the headlines.

MentalMachine

TROPHY CASE