Who lost our weekend?

April 3, 2026

Not only will we never get an apology from Scott Morrison and the ‘ruined weekend’ farce, an apology will never come from Tim Wilson, Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor who in 2019 posed gleefully in front of a hydrogen-fuelled car. Such was their contempt for electric vehicles (and the push for more renewables) that they instead promoted a most unlikely technology and promoted the myth that EVs (not petrol) would ruin our weekends. Nor will we see an explanation from Taylor or Joyce about the closing of Australian oil refineries. They could admit that, with the oligopolisation of oil, and our relatively small population, they made a decision based on business alone. To accuse Labor of being “asleep at the wheel” seemingly tracks well in this grievance-infested, ahistorical present. What of the future? John Blackman and other security experts have for decades warned of the dangers of oil dependence. The push for more local oil is coming from miners and those same ‘lost weekend’ elements in Canberra, still resisting the obvious: electrifying our transport system via renewables is urgent, (even more urgent than those energy-hungry data centres), doable, healthier and cheaper than oil will ever be.