CANBERRA – After US President Donald Trump announced a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following the collapse of peace talks with Iran – a move expected to exacerbate oil and fuel shortages globally – remote First Nations communities across Australia have responded to the news with a collective shrug not seen since the last Closing the Gap report.
“They’re acting like paying through the nose for fuel is some kind of new experience” said a community coordinator from a remote settlement in the Northern Territory that Gammon News is declining to name on the grounds that the government would immediately commission a report about it. “We’ve been living this. Come visit. Bring diesel.”
The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20 per cent of the world’s oil and natural gas, and disruptions have caused Brent crude prices to jump 10 to 13 per cent – a development that sent city-based commentators into a spiral of anguish about petrol costs that remote mob have been absorbing without media coverage for the better part of two decades.
The Federal Government confirmed it was monitoring the situation closely and had convened an emergency meeting of the National Fuel Security Taskforce. It did not confirm whether any remote community representatives had been invited to attend. They had not.
“This is a global crisis that demands global leadership” said a spokesperson for the relevant Minister. “We are committed to ensuring all Australians have access to affordable fuel.” The spokesperson did not elaborate on what “all Australians” meant in practice.
A senior NIAA official said the agency was “across the data.”
The data has not been shared with communities.
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