During the second world war the people of Britain suffered hardship because their country could not sustain itself without massive imports. It could not produce sufficient food to feed it's population. It had no oil to convert into petrol to keep it's air force flying - and it's supply lanes were under attack from German U-Boats.
By contrast, Australia has prided itself on achieving a high level of sustainability. We can not only feed ourselves. We export food to feed half the world. We have great industries that provide the essentials of life and in a world crisis we are not so vulnerable to blockade.
That is about to change. The Shell oil refinery at Clyde in Sydney is to close by 2013. It will cease to refine 75,000 barrels of oil daily and it will mean the shedding of 2,200 jobs either directly or in downstream industries. The old refinery will be converted into a receiving depot for imports from refineries in other countries.
The changes at Shell will leave New South Wales reliant on just one oil refinery - the Caltex operation at Kurnell in Sydney.
We live in an uncertain world and one of the great strengths of Australia has been the notion that we have sustainability in the event of war. Unfortunately that is now changing - fast !
The coming carbon tax imposes a threat to the last remnants of our steel industry and the imposition of " globalization " is resulting in a loss of manufacturing and reliance on other countries for goods that we used to produce here.
It seems ludicrous that we have an oil industry pumping crude in Australia, and yet if this loss of sustainability continues we may soon be unable to refine this natural product into petrol to service our transport fleets.
The elevation of the "bean counters " to put profits before sustainability is reducing our defence capability !
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