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“If things turn to custard, you're likely to have a problem,” John Blackburn, Ret. Vice Air Marshall said, almost four years ago on a podcast hosted by Robbie Katter, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader, and Member for Traeger.

“John sent the warning loud and clear in 2022 and has continued to since – Australia is far from prepared for global shocks to the fuel market like we’re seeing now,” Mr Katter said.

“The free marketeers have been caught with their pants down, and the rest of Australia are the ones left to pay.

“We had eight refineries in Australia, using Australian crude oil to produce 35-40% of our refined fuel only 25 years ago.  Now we import 90% of our refined fuel because ‘it’s cheaper’.

“Just as John Blackburn warned, ‘in the end we're still going to have a degree of our fuel that's dependent upon imports - that's reality’, but that doesn’t mean we roll over and become all but dependant on the whim of global powers and the world market,” the KAP leader said.

In the 2022 podcast, Mr Blackburn said “on energy policy, Australia has often prioritised exports over domestic supply. Other countries ensure they meet their own needs first, then export the surplus.”

Mr Katter reflected that “it blows my mind that, not just with fuel, but other commodities; gas and coal for example, we are more concerned about sending our resources off shore for others to have cheaper and more affordable energy, and we’re the ones languishing with solar panels and wind towers trying to power job creating industries – we’ve got it all wrong!”

“Will we continue to let the bean-counters in treasury send our resource rich nation into the dark ages while our customers like China and India prosper from using our coal, iron ore, and ‘dirty oil’, or will we wake up to ourselves and put Australia first?

“Families and businesses are being told a temporary fuel excise cut is the answer, but let’s call it what it is: a band-aid on a compound fracture.

“It might take a few cents off at the bowser for a few months which is welcome, but it does nothing to fix the core problem, that Australia doesn’t control its own fuel supply.

“If we’re serious about fuel security, we should be looking at immediate and long-term action, enforcing our ethanol mandate here in Queensland, rebuilding domestic refining capacity, and making sure Australian resources are prioritised for Australians first, regardless of what the economics textbooks tell the bureaucrats.

“Until we get serious, we’ll keep flipping from one crisis to the next and every time the global market sneezes, you can bet rural Australia will be the first to cop it.”