Australia exports raw oil, then imports the refined oil. We import fertiliser that we could produce ourselves. So we already pay a high price for petrol and food.
Then support a war that blocks us from importing processed natural resources. When crises arise, the government says "don't panic", then scrambles to form a plan in emergency meetings.
The cost of corruption is a lot more than money.
@Over2you
I worked at a refinery that was closed down in Australia.
The issue is that refining oil is a volume game. Furthermore, combining volume with producing high value petrochemical feedstocks is where the dollars are made. Australia is the wrong market for high volume, lower cost crude feedstocks (think high sulphur Saudi crude) and producing high value chemical feedstocks.
There is no way any Australian refinery can compete with large Asian refineries, and that's before you take into account the regulatory overhead Australia has, and the costs of equipment to meet tighter fuel standards.
So the only way to remain in the refining game is for the government to give subsidies.
And that is a risk evaluation game. What is the likelihood of an event like what we're experiencing now vs the additional cost to the tax payer for each and every litre processed in country?
Having worked in the sector, if I'm the government, I'm doing the bare minimum subsidy, as the likelihood of a fuel supply event is normally miniscule.....
@MrAndrewD
Thank you for providing less simplistic information on this vexed situation; it’s never as simple as stated without sources or direct experience to draw on. We can learn lessons but US corruption is not one of them. Working better with our neighbours, like Singapore, who can do the volume refining is worthwhile it seems to me. 🙏🏻
Petrol and fertilizers are expensive to make. So is AdBlue.
Australia has let many operations go to overseas manufacturing because we just don't have the market for them. And it's not even close.
What the current circumstances are showing is that...
A) We need to get off fossil fuels.
B) We need to increase onshore holdings of fertilizer and similar products.
Unless we can find a way to build a decent market for those things.
@Arapalla
Thank you for providing less simplistic information on this vexed situation; it’s never as simple as stated without sources or direct experience of the issues. It was much more helpful to read your contribution. 👍
@Over2you
We [Australia] have such a relatively small population, spread thinly over a huge land, very little of which is suitable for intensive farming (eg most land has hardly any topsoil & what topsoil there is, is prone to blow away because… no mountains). 💨
We can learn lessons but US corruption is not one of them. All things have costs; it’s not all that helpful to say ‘could or should’ without reference to our wider area, neighbours, & how we work together. No one expected the madman in the US to start a war he cannot control nor stop: just the pollution costs are mind boggling, let alone the need to rejig whole economies…
#USPol #AusPol #farming #pollutionCosts #economicCostsOfWar #corruption #simplistic #smarterComments
Mik
MrAndrewD
Su_G
Arapalla