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.

#auspol #democracy #freespeech

@Over2you

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