(Image: Tom Red/Private Media)
(Image: Mitchell Squire/Private Media)

Remember “energy security”? Like most things with the word “security” tacked on, or with “sovereign” floating around, it’s a slogan employed by vested interests to advance their own cause, as much as it is a genuine policy issue. That’s why the Coalition likes to talk about energy security strictly in terms of keeping fossil fuel power going in order to guarantee supply for “when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow”.

But then the government got caught out on “fuel security” as Australia’s uncompetitive refining sector steadily shut up shop and we became ever more dependent on imports of fuel.