Opinion

In the 1930s, Winston Churchill warned that Europe was sleepwalking into danger. Across the chamber, Neville Chamberlain insisted all would be well. “Peace in our time,” he said—a comforting line, right up until Hitler crossed into Poland. We are seeing a modern version of that same delusion play out today.

At the recent East Gippsland Field Days the many hundreds of people spoken to and attending the Mine Free Glenaladale stand expressed their frustration that the Government had given the former Kalbar Resources, now rebranded as Gippsland Critical Minerals, the opportunity to rescope the failed Kalbar project ... Mine Free Glenaladale also questions the authenticity of GCM claims relating to the test pit.

At a time when Australian farmers are facing a major fertiliser squeeze, Canberra has decided the priority is not supply, not affordability, and not domestic resilience—but underwriting a green ammonia export dream ... while farmers are being told to accept decile 10 nitrogen prices, or even decile zero availability, taxpayers—including those same farmers in the years they make money—are being lined up to help fast track a plant that will help foreign farmers access fertiliser.

Neither of these parties should have the capacity to determine government, let alone form it. Both represent an existential threat to the continuance of our hard fought for liberal democracy, itself a fragile experiment in the history of the world.

This year’s projected opening allocation for South Australian River Murray water users has reinforced the importance of a healthy and flowing Basin – and ensuring parties representing River communities put local interests ahead of upstream states.

Some of you may have read my previous articles on Summit’s Force Majeure Gamble: A Pattern Emerges and CSBP’s Force Majeure Gamble ... The response on social media has been staggering, with the algorithms going off the charts — which tells me I have hit a nerve. Even more interesting are the stories of urea...

Australia has just signed up to a free trade agreement with the European Union, which is being sold—predictably—as a great leap forward for the inner city consumer ... Out in the paddock, however, the mood is less celebratory. Because the small print tells a more familiar story. Australian once again, signed a deal where farmers pay the costs.

As the Iran–USA–Israel conflict ripples through global fertiliser markets, Western Australian farmers are discovering just how fragile their supply chains really are. At the centre of it is CSBP, which has reached for the force majeure clause in its contracts to step away from its contractual obligations.

Urea hit the equivalent of $2,800 a tonne in today’s dollars back in 1974. That’s not a typo—and it’s not ancient history either. To understand how that happens, you need to start with geography. Roughly a third of global fertiliser trade by sea—not production, trade—passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

On 24 March 2026, Australia and the European Union agreed the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement. Prime Minister Albanese's optimistic announcement is at odds with the widespread criticism and disappointment evident in the responses from the Victorian Farmers' Federation, Canegrowers, the National Farmers' Federation, Queensland Farmers' Federation and the Australian Lot Feeder's Association

Professor Bhattacharya from Monash University says advancing domestic refining and feedstock technologies is critical to improving long-term fuel security. Monash engineers have developed a pyrolysis technology that converts end-of-life tyres and plastics into high-value liquid hydrocarbons, creating a new, circular source of refinery-ready feedstocks.

Yet drive through Perth and the metropolitan fuel system appears to be operating normally. No ration notices. No capped pumps. No anxious motorists sneaking jerry-cans into the back of Hiluxes ... something more curious is emerging: selective rationing.

Recent reports of fuel supply concerns and diesel shortages for trucks highlight a serious vulnerability in Australia’s transport system … This situation is a reminder that relying almost entirely on diesel-powered road transport is risky ... Regional railway lines could play an important role in strengthening supply chains.

There was also something about prioritising regional areas. What there was not was anything resembling a system to track where fuel shortages are actually occurring, or to require distributors to send fuel where it is most needed.

When governments start calling emergency roundtables it usually means one thing: The planning should have happened years ago. Last week the Western Australian Government convened a “Fuel Security Roundtable” in response to supply disruptions linked to rising tensions in the Middle East.

This article is a rerun of a piece I first published in these pages back in November 2023 ... Readers may recall the strategic fuel debate that ran hot a few years ago when the BP refinery in Perth was about to close and Australia suddenly realised it only had a couple of weeks of fuel reserves.

Right now across regional Western Australia something deeply concerning is unfolding. Farmers are being told their diesel deliveries have stopped. Some have been warned supply may not resume for weeks. Others cannot lock in deliveries at all. In some cases, operations have already ground to a halt simply because there is no fuel to run the machinery. This should alarm every Western Australian.

I’m continually amazed how many people can fly to Bali yet couldn’t point to it on a map. Ask them to name the countries that sit north of Indonesia and you’ll usually get a blank look. Yet geography still matters. In fact, it quietly dictates how the global economy works.

"When fuel swings, manual systems fail. We need to change how we view carriers. They aren’t just ‘capacity,’ they are small businesses under immense pressure. The future of the industry depends on accelerated cash flow and intelligent route planning that slashes unnecessary fuel burn": Dean Newman, COO, Ofload.

Beneath the agreeable language embedded in regenerative agriculture — soil health and sustainable ecosystems — sits a more consequential proposition: that modern, input-intensive agriculture has overshot its optimal point and that government policy should now encourage a structural shift toward lower-input systems. That is not a trivial adjustment. It is a claim about the production frontier of Australian agriculture. Claims of that magnitude ... warrant far more rigorous empirical scrutiny than they have so far received.

Dr Siri Gamage. We keep hearing about regional growth. We hear about decentralisation, productivity, housing pressures in capital cities and the promise of thriving regional communities. But here is the uncomfortable truth: growth without proper public transport is not a strategy. It is rhetoric.

As the WA sheep industry watches in disbelief the rollout of the federal government’s transition package — where $139 million seems to be evaporating before our eyes — one thing is becoming painfully clear. The design of the funding means the vast majority of sheep producers impacted by the end of live exports won’t see a cent.