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Anthony Albanese made an extraordinary plea to Australians in a rare televised address to the nation at 7PM on Wednesday evening, asking for Aussies to “enjoy your Easter” — but to take no extra fuel, think about others in the community, and maybe switch to catching the train or bus or tram to work.
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The key takeaway was simple: Albo needs everyone to “help each other” because there’s not going to be enough fuel to get around if the Iranian war-sparked energy crisis could well last for some months yet before things get better.
But — Isaac McIntye and Jonathon Davidson agreed they’d “wanted more” when speaking about the extraordinary address on the HotCopper Wire.
“This was just the third time an Aussie prime minister has given a nationally televised address this century, and after Scomo’s COVID-19 pandemic-themed address and Kevin Rudd’s speech on the global financial crisis, this one really felt like it could have been an email before he halted the nation,” McIntyre said.
Davidson was on the same page: “My overall point agrees with yours, Isaac. It was a weak address. I think every single satire article and internet comment out afterwards shows nearly the entire nation thought that.”
“Frankly, I wanted more,” McIntyre said, “though I do think that will still be coming.”
The “something coming,” the Market Link editor suggested, could be post-Easter fuel restrictions and even possible work-from-home mandates.
I suspect this “keep calm, carry on” speech was a fairly good setup that amounts to Albo manufacturing consent for what’s next,” he said. “Maybe we find some relief, but I suspect he’ll turn around after the weekend ahead and say we didn’t do enough and that now the government has to enforce restrictions.”
Davidson said he suspects the biggest takeaways are that “more rate hikes are coming, the cost of groceries is set to rise… and [that] the government is expecting the Iran War inflationary risk to last months.”
Is this all a preamble to establishing enforcement measures around fuel restrictions?” Davidson mused. “Only time will tell. But I do think his appeal to the Aussie sentimentality was a bit old-hat and came off the wrong way; I think he mightn’t have too much to relate to the average Australian, to be honest, and I think he could have had some balls and even implemented something a little stronger.”
“It could have been a Facebook post,” he added as a late crack.
Albo did say his Labor gov’t was “acting on” everything at a Press Club address the following day, but some may think it’s too little, too late.
I want to focus on today,” the Prime Minister said on Thursday. “The immediate actions we are taking to secure our fuel supply and to shield our economy. The preparations we are undertaking, as this situation evolves.”
“We can, and we must act now. That instead, we stand on our own two feet. We navigate global uncertainty our way, the Australian way.”
You can listen to the full HotCopper Wire episode below.
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Disclaimer, as spoken by Isaac McIntyre in the HotCopper Wire episode: Any information or advice in this HotCopper podcast recording is intended for education and entertainment purposes. Any advice is general in nature and does not take into consideration your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on general advice, you should consider whether it is relevant to your needs and read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement. And if you are unsure, please speak to a financial professional.
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