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Tanker traffic in the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply is transported, has effectively halted. Brent crude surged as much as 13 per cent intraday to $82 a barrel. UBS analysts warn Brent could hit US$120 a barrel if the Strait remains blocked; and Barclays estimates a three-to-four week squeeze could push prices above US$100. On Monday, Qatar’s national LNG company, 20 per cent of global supply, halted production and Saudi Arabia shut its biggest domestic oil refinery after a drone strike.

Australia, watching all of this unfold in real time, has just 25 days of diesel reserves and 29 days of petrol coming into 2026. Australia imports over 90 per cent of its refined oil products – diesel, petrol, aviation fuel – as well as crude oil feedstocks. While our largest direct supplier is Singapore, those supply chains trace back through primary fuel extracted across the Gulf. We have essentially no buffer against what is unfolding.

And if you want the issue to be debated in parliament you can sign a petition linked in the article.

Switch to renewables if you can.

The stereotypes of democratic decline are rigged elections or daily street chaos. However, Australia’s democratic decline is happening much more quietly, with weakening whistleblower protections and the steady expansion of laws over several years that have made protest riskier than ever. https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260306-the-decline-in-democracy-what-does-it-mean-for-the-generations-to-come

Young people, do not stay quiet. Make it clear to the politicians that you can see what's going on and that you won't stand for it. Believe it or not, there will be plenty of Boomers who will support you.

Policy changes introduced and maintained under Abbott's leadership [PM from Sep 2013 to Sep 2015] played a central role in driving that growth. The rate of growth in overseas student numbers from 2013 to 2019 is extraordinary (an increase of over 200,000 in just six years). These understandably fell during COVID and then increased even more rapidly after COVID due to further measures to accelerate the return of students implemented by the Morrison Government. These measures included unrestricted student visa work rights, fee-free applications, and a covid visa, which attracted huge numbers of students to switch to this cheap visa with unrestricted work rights and no requirement to study. The new Albanese Government was slow to tighten these policies.

There is growing momentum that the insanely generous capital gains tax discount needs to change.

Recent Parliamentary Budget Office figures show that more than 80% of the discount goes to the top 10% of income earners and if that was not bad enough almost 60% goes to the top 1% (those who earn more than $362,900).

That’s $13 billion a year going just to the top one percenters...

The Government needs to answer... Who should pay more tax on their extra income, those on the lowest wages, or those with the most? It’s over to you Prime Minister.

https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260302-the-simple-question-at-the-heart-of-the-capital-gains-tax-debate-why-do-should-pay-more-tax-minimum-wage-workers-or-wealthy-investors

I am truly worried that we will get caught up in yet another overseas war.

Some of you may be interested in signing. Already fairly close to ten thousand have signed.

So here’s the uncomfortable question Australians should ask, especially when our leader Anthony Albanese was so quick to line up behind the strikes: what exactly is the theory of change?

Not the slogan. Not the press release. The real theory. How, precisely, does dropping bombs - or killing a dictator - make Iranian women freer, Iranian prisons emptier, Iranian courts fairer, or Iranian politics more accountable? And how does it secure long-term peace in the Middle East.

If we can’t answer that in plain language, then we are not looking at a pathway to peace and human rights. We’re looking at protracted violence and dysfunction dressed up as virtue.