Australia: Wartime mentality needed

THE world is not about to run out of oil, according to Queensland’s new Minister for Sustainability Andrew McNamara.

“But it is about to run out of cheap oil,” he said. “The degree of social dislocation, the degree of pain, will depend on how urgently we respond . . . in the end we will have to adopt a kind of wartime mentality (to oil use).”


He said the report commissioned by the Government on the looming peak oil crisis warns that rising oil prices will continue to fuel inflation and interest rates, placing further pressure on so-called “mortgage belt” families in outlying suburbs.

Not only will their cost of transport rise dramatically but so will mortgage repayments and the cost of food due to rising transport charges. As at 2004, 15 per cent of Australians’ disposable income went on transport, and that was with considerably lower fuel prices.

It also warns of rising problems in outlying communities