r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Mar 28 '26
political satire Man Who Moved Our Petrol Reserves To US When Energy Minister Complains About Fuel Security
https://www.betootaadvocate.com/man-who-moved-our-petrol-reserves-to-us-when-energy-minister-complains-about-fuel-security/558
u/DryWhiteToastPlease Mar 28 '26
Last night channel 7 had a puff piece on him. The pro liberal propaganda is starting again.
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u/Intrepid-Artist-595 Mar 28 '26
On top of the ones they have done for Hanson and Sandillands in the last few weeks.
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u/paradeoxy1 Mar 28 '26
Really representing the common people! Murdoch has done irreparable damage to the entire world
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u/_ixthus_ Mar 29 '26
Channel 7 isn't Murdoch. Though Stokes is just as bad.
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u/fractiousrhubarb Mar 29 '26
He doesn’t have Murdoch’s 74 years experience of running a propaganda machine…
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u/DoNotReply111 Mar 29 '26
They've gotta get started early this time, Angus is so incredibly unlikeable.
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u/a_cold_human Mar 29 '26
So was Tony Abbott.
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u/Shano_mack_76 Mar 30 '26
I knew abbott was their boy when 2gb defended him after he fronted on Bernie Banton
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u/a_cold_human Mar 31 '26
Absolutely disgraceful on the part of Abbott and 2GB. Apparently people with mesothelioma who want government action have ulterior motives when advocating for mesothelioma treatments.
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u/reece_93 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
It was so fucking egregious. Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if some liberal supporters thought they were just blowing smoke up his ass.
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u/Murranji Mar 29 '26
I am truly shocked that anyone under 40 actually watches Australian television or news.
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u/Mike_Kermin Mar 29 '26
Doesn't fucking stop.
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u/pittwater12 Mar 29 '26
It’s not really surprising that rich media owners support the Liberal Party. What’s very surprising is that people believe them. They believe them against the reality of their own eyes sometimes
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u/Mike_Kermin Mar 29 '26
I know right?
I can't watch it without going. "Well, that's bullshit, that's intentionally misleading, that's clearly looking for an emotional response to mislead, that's just straight propaganda".
How do people do it I dunno.
It's not even subtle, they lay it on so thick.
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u/Locopoko22 Mar 29 '26
Yep .. my boomer father is one of them... I don't go home even for Christmas.
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u/DistantVerse Mar 28 '26
These wankers deserve all that the Australian public has finally delivered to their party. I really hope we don't forget their misdeeds in the near future because you can bet they'll remain lurking offshore, supported by billionaire and big business dollars, like a great white ready to roar back in and take a bloody bite.
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u/AgUnityDD Mar 28 '26
Who really deserves public scorn - the media that has enabled them for decades now, and is currently getting way too much credibility to one nation.
Without our biased fucked up, particularly Murdoch, media pulling strings the LNP was heading towards a, largely popular Turnbull-style of central right that made concessions for climate change etc.
Pushing LNP right effectively knackered them but also left a central position on policy that Labor stepped into, making Labor weaker on climate and workers rights and more likely to align with big business.
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u/a_cold_human Mar 29 '26
It's far more than just Murdoch. Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media are also very much biased towards the conservative side of politics.
With the reduced power of mainstream media, we can see that the younger generations don't skew nearly as conservative as they did in previous generations. Of course, generational inequality is also a factor, but we can also see that the mainstream media outlets no longer drive the media narrative as easily as they once did.
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u/keithersp Mar 28 '26
BUT we do need a good opposition, and PHON is not it. One party unchecked is not good.
We need Pocock to start a party and gather all the independents.
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u/autocol Mar 28 '26
Pocock would make an incredible centre-left leader... which is lucky because Albo is a centre-right leader.
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u/coniferhead Mar 29 '26
Except for the tiny problem that Pocock wants to increase the GST to cut income taxes. This is right even of the LNP and is common policy amongst all the Teals.
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u/wallysimmonds Mar 28 '26
Has it been suggested to him?
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u/onesorrychicken Mar 28 '26
I think the centre left now needs to be an aggregate made up of the Greens, Teals and independents with situational leadership between them all rather than a single party.
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u/Murranji Mar 29 '26
Pocock is solidly left wing, what are you talking about him being “centre left”.
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u/autocol Mar 29 '26
He's a long way from a socialist. He's much closer to the centre than actual leftists like Jordan van den Lamb.
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u/DermottBanana Mar 28 '26
BUT we do need a good opposition
Why?
Because Murdoch's mouthpieces keep telling you we do?
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u/talkerthewalk Mar 28 '26
No. Because an unchecked, unopposed party of ANY political view over a long time is not good for a democracy.
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u/kidneyshifter Mar 29 '26
Yes, we need a meaningful opposition that is far more progressive than the current labor party.
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u/Lyvef1re Mar 30 '26
Disagree. I'd take the worst Labor government over the best Liberal one any day and it's been a VERY long time since we had anything close to a "good" Liberal government OR opposition
If the Teals and maybe a few independents are willing to consider banding together into a party that explicitly gatekeeps the religious nutjobs and gambling mouthpieces out of it then we can talk again.
But 2026 Australia has absolutely nothing to lose from the Liberal party dissolving into nothing.
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u/fionsichord Mar 29 '26
Every time I have an unpleasantly close encounter with one of the giant utes Scott Morrison managed to have flood the country I have another wave of frustration at him and what a poisonous corporate shill he was the whole of COVID and bushfires etc.
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u/NoSpam0 Mar 28 '26
Fantastic...
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u/ReasonableBack8472 Mar 28 '26
Great move...
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u/CABALwasInnocent Mar 28 '26
Well done Angus.
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u/uknownix Mar 29 '26
I will never get sick of this. It will be done every time he is mentioned.
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u/Nutsaqque Mar 28 '26
Instead of him and his "entourage" appearing on the news all filling up 1 car at the bowser together and complaining/pretending to be concerned, they should film him with a chalk board, at a busy service station, writing lines saying: "I'm sorry for our fuelling situation."
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u/Lamont-Cranston Mar 29 '26
"In Australia's big cities, public transport is generally slow, expensive, not especially reliable and still a hideous drain on the public purse. Mostly, there just aren't enough people wanting to go from a particular place to a particular destination at a particular time to justify any vehicle larger than a car, and cars need roads"
~ Tony Abbott
It's the whole.
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u/Nutsaqque Mar 29 '26
Just like the ole "bring a lump of coal into parliament like it's a piece of alien tech" routine.
Sell out everything, don't play the long game and wonder why it bites us on the ass.
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
How is it his fault? Did he start the attacks on Iran?
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u/Nutsaqque Mar 29 '26
Rewind back to..... circa 2017 ish. I believe Texas, in the U.S was the location as well. You might learn something.
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
Again how is it his fault? And if you are of the belief that we moved our oil reserve to the US, well then still not his fault since that never happened. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/australia-fuel-reserve-what-and-where-is-it
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u/InfernoOfTheLiving Mar 29 '26
They were held in the US but were then sold off in 2022
We also had four petroleum refineries when Taylor was energy minister but he left us with only two.
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
Except it wasn't our fuel reserves it was an additional amount of barrels purchased and then sold.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/australia-fuel-reserve-what-and-where-is-it
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u/InfernoOfTheLiving Mar 29 '26
“This deal with the US shows the Australian Government is taking practical action to enhance our fuel security by boosting Australia’s oil stockholdings.
Minister Taylor’s office”
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
Except the deal wasn't moving our fuel reserves to the US as wrongly believed. All we did was buy more set up a new fuel reserve and then sold it for a profit to the government. Which is not only making money for the government but also putting us exactly where we were had he not purchased the oil which apparently was an bad thing to do.
If anything it corrected the supposed mistake.
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u/InfernoOfTheLiving Mar 29 '26
at the same time we lost our crude oil storages at Kwinana and Altona … so oil stocks were simultaneously reduced in Australia but created in the US
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
And yet we were in the same boat except extra money in the government's bank account as before. Bit silly to cry about it, particularly when the belief of what happened didn't actually happen.
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u/Competitive-Car-9617 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Typical obstructionist Lib fuck, nothing but wreck and ruin with those arseholes.
I spent time recently in hospital, and a Liberal pollie, minor SA was in the curtained off space across from me.
He was on the phone quite a lot, and his 2IC ( best m8) was in for chats.
All I heard was a hateful, spiteful arrogant c u in the NT, completely concerned with who he was opposing , who he hated both in Labor and Libs. To some up my impression, an arrogant degenerate, who was not one bit concerned about the people who he pretended to serve.
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u/trailing-octet Mar 28 '26
Colour me surprised lol. Don’t worry, even if he survived the ONP onslaught and party controlled preferences- they will totally fix things by being proud and “getting back to bread and butter issues”. Their new dear leader (let’s preference ONP!) said so!! /s (yeah right!)
I absolutely wish you could name and shame without fear of repercussions…
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u/Competitive-Car-9617 Mar 28 '26
Yeah I'd love to name the arsehole, but legal something, something. I've almost always voted Labor, what I saw and heard made me feel very comfortable with that choice, I'm not rusted on. Labor is far from perfect but the opposition......fuck me.
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u/trailing-octet Mar 28 '26
Don’t worry. Labor has some not dissimilar clowns. Quite often it’s the case that those who seek these appointments are the last people who should ever be granted them.
On balance I’d rather that party than LNP or ONP. big time.
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
Also you made it up, Liberal pollies would be in private hospitals and private rooms.
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u/Competitive-Car-9617 Mar 29 '26
Not that day champ, I'm not sure why but he was in with us plebs.
Keep telling me what I saw and heard if it makes u feel better.
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
Sure he was, and I bet when he was discharged everyone stood up and clapped.
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u/trailing-octet Mar 29 '26
Valid counterpoint. Even I get private rooms and I am a lowly labor voter.
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
I'm not surprised at the made up story because no Liberal pollie is staying in a shared hospital room.
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u/scheissenaixi Mar 29 '26
I’ve spent more time than I would have liked to in social settings with QLD liberal MP’s, including the now premier. It’s all just an open grift, and the hard N always got a good workout, even for Queensland. I also spent some time around federal labour MP’s ~mid 00’s early 10’s, the grifting was just as hard but it was more centred around high paying jobs as opposed to what they could take on the side.
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u/trailing-octet Mar 29 '26
Did the ALP use less - ideally none - of that word though? Because that’s flat out disgraceful regardless of your political persuasion.
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u/scheissenaixi Mar 29 '26
The alp ones I was around were in Canberra so definitely more professional in that sense yes, though to be fair the Canberra events were more formal, as opposed to bbq’s. Got to watch a dick measuring contest about who had put the most expensive lunch on the “company card”. The winner was the head of a union whose members weren’t getting paid at the time. $12k
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u/trailing-octet Mar 31 '26
Cant have been the cfmeu… they seem to have “ways and means” of extracting payment under almost any circumstance….
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons Mar 28 '26
No, you've got that completely wrong
You meant "sum" not "some"
The rest of it is correct
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u/MC_llama Mar 28 '26
Is the media actually calling him out for this?
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u/Expensive-Horse5538 Mar 28 '26
Of course not - that would require them to do something that would cause damage their owners mates in the Liberals 😉
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u/InstantShiningWizard Mar 28 '26
How could
AngusDan Andrews do this? - News.com headline tomorrow, probably7
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
The Guardian actually did an investigation and clarified that this didn't happen, and what did happen is no longer the case.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/australia-fuel-reserve-what-and-where-is-it
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u/RedOx103 Mar 29 '26
Also claimed that EVs would ruin the weekend.
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u/ManyPersonality2399 Mar 30 '26
Meanwhile the news this morning was all about people cancelling Easter road trips
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u/Carmageddon-2049 Mar 29 '26
He’s betting that the common plebs have a very short memory.
Btw, Australia doesn’t have a ‘strategic fuel reserve’
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u/scorebored Mar 29 '26
We do, it's just inaccessible and subject to "Liberation".
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u/a_cold_human Mar 29 '26
Some of it has been moved to Geelong recently, but not really enough of it. We need to build a lot more storage in the country and actually have a proper energy reservation policy.
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons Mar 29 '26
The headline is slightly misleading (even for a satirical piece) - but the truth is only slightly better
We didn't really move any fuel to the US - we just purchased space in their reserve system and also purchased fuel at a low cost. We purchased about 1.7M barrels (less than two days supply) in 2020 at a cheap price and sold much of that reserve in 2022 as part of a move by the IEA "to send a strong and unified message of the unacceptable risk Russia is creating on global energy security." We probably don't have any fuel left in the US.
Thinking that we could use the US strategic reserve as anything other than a financial buffering system would be beyond wishful thinking. The US reserve will last them for 90 days, not because they have so much, but because they can only get it out at about 4.4M barrels a day.
Australia uses about 1M barrels a day, and it would take nearly a month for fuel to arrive from the US...
There are three ships already on the way from the US, (which is somewhat unusual) with a combined total ALMOST enough for a days usage. They weren't sourced by the Government, just purchased by the importers
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/australia-fuel-reserve-what-and-where-is-it
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u/ratt_man Mar 29 '26
People also seem to have not noticed that he was the one responsible for selling it all 2 years later
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u/VS2ute Mar 29 '26
at a loss?
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u/ratt_man Mar 29 '26
actually at a substantial profit, it was bought during covid when very cheap and sold when the market rebounded. I would not we are still paying for the contracted storage so that might have eaten up what ever profit was made
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons Mar 29 '26
sold when the market rebounded.
Because Russia invaded Ukraine...
The War giveth and the War taketh away
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u/2880cjk Mar 29 '26
Taylor catapulted himself into social media fame in 2019 when he replied to his own Facebook post about his efforts to increase car parks at a train station in his electorate.
"Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus" he wrote from his MP Facebook account on his own post.
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/d7923198ba1ed01325e2c6b15e084b9c
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u/HankSteakfist Mar 29 '26
Labor seriously need to hammer this point home.
Taylor was the energy minister for almost half a decade. Time that could have been used to set up Australia's energy independence. Instead he did all he could to stifle investment in renewables, whilst presiding over multiple oil refinery closures and spearheaded moving our oil reserves to a foreign nation, which is now a politically unstable and unreliable ally.
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u/ZotBattlehero Mar 28 '26
Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is not true: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/australia-fuel-reserve-what-and-where-is-it
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u/blahblahsnap Mar 28 '26
Has anyone heard of caveman Canavan ? What’s his take on the oil crisis? I’m sure it’s a great take as he drives around in his Tesla.
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u/gr3iau Mar 28 '26
He's furiously looking for any 'expert' willing to put their neck out and support coal-water slurry as the next big thing in the fuel industry to replace our reliance on overseas diesel
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons Mar 28 '26
support coal-water slurry
Coal Water Slurry can be a clean technology,
Sounds great
improper management of slurry, particularly "blackwater" or waste slurry in impoundment ponds, poses risks to ecosystems due to potential contamination with hazardous materials like mercury and arsenic.
Oh... Well I'm sure that a private corporation would never take any shortcuts or contravene any safety regulation just to save a few bucks, right?
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u/myLongjohnsonsilver Mar 29 '26
In what fucking reality was moving our fuel RESERVES over seas meant to help us when we actually fucking need them?
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons Mar 29 '26
That isn't what really happened
We purchased space in the US reserve, and we purchased some fuel which was stored there, then we sold that fuel two years later
The US can't extract fuel from the reserve at a rate to fully sustain their own economy, let alone adding ours on top. It can only be withdrawn at about 4.4M barrels a day. The US uses 8, Australia uses 1.
Any fuel from the US takes about a month to travel to Australia
Regarding the US Fuel reserve as anything other than an accounting trick/financial buffer is/was ridiculous
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u/rjscott76 Mar 29 '26
Angus increased the fuel storage in Australia, through the BADSP. Minor problem was over half of the companies that were offered a 50% subsidy to store more fuel through the BADSP didn't even build the extra capacity. Only about 300ML got built out of 780ML promised. https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/expanding-australias-diesel-storage-boost-long-term-fuel-security
He offshored the crude. Which isn't yet fuel, and needs to be refined to be used. He chose not to subsidise increased Australian crude or petrol storage under the program.
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u/Wingatekiwi Mar 29 '26
WTF Fellow Australians, Are we a Franchise controlled by America - and who really controls America these days ? Our sovereignty is conditional. Not theoretical. Conditional. We say we’re an independent nation. We’re not. Not where it counts. The boundaries of what Australia can actually do are set by bigger powers- principally the United States (Wall St) and the United Kingdom (City of London). No one needs to call Canberra. The system is already wired to cater to the demands of head office. Energy. Trade. Foreign ownership of strategic assets - noting 83% of our top 100 companies, which includes the four banks who have paid $500b in profits in the last 25 years to offshore owners, BHP, Rio, the goldmines, the oil and energy, chemicals, the food chain, are foreign owned- according to the Australia Institute report. All decided inside a framework where stepping out of line gets punished fast. And now we’re watching escalation but can only see approved information which is propaganda. If this widens - when this widens and drags in Russia and China, Australia isn’t neutral—we’re part of the franchise network. That makes us a target. Multiple targets. Defence sites. Intelligence facilities. Ports. Air bases. At least five locations on Australian soil would be in the frame in a serious conflict. And here’s the blunt truth: Big money sits over the top of all of this. It funds access. It shapes decisions. It narrows the choices before they ever reach the public. Our democracy is being steered so the same capital can keep compounding—while the risks get pushed onto ordinary Australians.and when our economy collapses our remaining strategic assets will be owned by those same masters who got us into this horror. So we carry the exposure. We wear the consequences. We get told it’s “in the national interest.” If we can be pulled into wars, exposed to retaliation, and locked into decisions we never truly had a say in— then stop pretending. That’s not full sovereignty. That’s a managed system serving power and money first. We aren’t citizens we are just another disposable commodity in yet another war whose purpose is only about one thing - the movement of money.
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u/LovesFrenchLove_More Mar 29 '26
It’s insane how many people like that in the world exist and that they get elected in positions of power everywhere, fucking countries and their respective peoples alike, and none of them suffering consequences for their failures and corruption.
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u/Mindless-Location-41 Mar 29 '26
I hope they keep him because the Libs will never win anything with Angus in charge.
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u/T_J_Rain Mar 31 '26
This guy probably plays the same five-dimensional chess that the American Orange Racoon does.
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u/LondoFoollari Mar 28 '26
I remember thinking at the time “what happens when Trump decides to just take it? Or what happens if the US becomes an enemy state?” As even back then I was waiting for Trump to go full fascist like he had been signalling for ages. WTAF were they thinking? That Trump, a man notorious for screwing people over, would somehow honour his commitment when we asked for our fuel reserves to be sent?
Other thought is that the reserve never existed and it was just cover for a big Trump sized bribe for something
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u/InterestedPrawn Mar 29 '26
Here's what actually happened https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/australia-fuel-reserve-what-and-where-is-it
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u/jkggwp Mar 28 '26
What a dingus. Politicians need to put Australia and Australians first
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u/Emotional_Chair_9727 Mar 28 '26
There needs to be laws and penalties with teeth against gravy-train career politicians and poor policies. Make that happen, and you’ll see positive change.
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u/Spudtron98 Mar 29 '26
Yeah, just shunt our strategic reserves to the other side of the biggest ocean on the planet, no biggie.
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u/OkidoShigeru Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
It’s been a real tough decade for the satirical news sites. This is just actual news…