Peta Credlin wants us to blame Anthony Albanese, not the US President, a convicted felon and alleged pedophile, Donald John Trump, for our fuel pain. Still, we are hurting, not because of the alleged pedophile and US President moving to take out an an evil Islamists regime (that Trump first mentioned ‘taking out’ and ‘bombing them’ in a New York Times article, published in 1988) that Credlin claims, without proof, other than “Donny John said” was close to launching nuclear attacks on its neighbours.
While the Prime Minister tells Australians not to panic, that there is no supply problem and that the answer to fuel shortages is to buy an EV; in the real world fuel prices are up some 60 per cent, with over 10 per cent of servos out of some or all of their fuels, mines and ports are wondering how long they’ll be able to operate without diesel, airlines are cancelling flights and some 30 per cent of farmers are reconsidering whether to sow or to harvest their crops because of diesel shortages or because transport costs have now made it uneconomic.
We are in this mess because successive coalition governments sold everything off to their rich mates in private industry, such as Gina Rhienhart or Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, rather than ensuring 90 days’ of liquid and refined fuel supply as required under the International Energy Agency rules that Australia has signed up to.
How quickly Credlin has forgotten these lessons or the fact it was the federal and (Victorian) state coalition governments who sold every critical national and state asset to their rich party donor friends.
The coalition neglected throughout the Howard/Morrison/Abbott era to secure 90 days’ worth of fuel supplies within Australia while in office. Several times over.
Instead, the coalition government sold off national assets to their rich party donor mates so their already rich party donors could make coin, whilst screaming about ‘unions having too much power,’ so Howard took care of that ‘problem.’
This is why we are here today. It has nothing to do with the current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Credlin, as a former coalition staffer, who, for all intents and purposes, ran Abbott’s government, now Herald Sun commentator, Peta Credlin claims.
This may have been excusable when just-in-time global supply chains seemed to be working, but it’s culpably negligent since the pandemic, where we learned that, in an emergency, it was every country for itself.
Credlin, in typical coalition Trump-esque style of espousing utter bullshit and hoping people believe it, makes no mention of the Howard government selling everything off that wasn’t bolted down to his rich party donor mates.
Credlin makes no mention of how former Liberal Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett, also sold off any state assets that weren’t bolted down, including the Gas & Fuel Corporation, State Electricity Commission and Victorian Railways. Kennett, like his federal coalition counterparts, sold all of these assets to their rich mates who donated to the coalition.
Today, those very rich people whom the (Victorian) coalition and the Howard/Abbott/Morrison federal coalitions sold federal and state assets to are all included in The Australian’s “Top 250” rich listers. Credlin makes no mention of this glaring fact either. Some entered said ‘rich list’ off the backs of being handed these national and state assets by the coalition.
The problem isn’t today’s Prime Minister, as Credlin claims. It is the coalition, since John Howard (and in Victoria, Jeff Kennett), sold off every piece of state or Commonwealth-owned asset (taxpayers) that wasn’t bolted down, to their rich party donors to make bank on. Today, those who bought those assets -formally owned by taxpayers – are all in the Top 250 Australian Rich List.
Tomorrow, there’ll be another national cabinet. Let’s see if the coalition can offer some solutions, such as re-nationalising those very assets that the coalition sold to their party donor friends and taking back control of those very critical infrastructure assets they sold to their rich party donor mates.
Anything less is performative politics, just like Peta Credlin’s News Corp columns.
