If policymakers conclude the answer to fuel shortages is to simply build much larger liquid fuel reserves, they will lock Australia into a worse dependence on less reliable supplies of petrol, diesel and other liquid fuels. As geopolitical tensions increase, this reliance is foolish in the extreme.

What Australia needs isn’t bigger fuel tanks. It’s to build energy independence. A nation able to run its transport sector on its own resources is a nation better able to weather global uncertainty. The fastest and most cost-effective way to do so is to accelerate the electrification of transport, powering vehicles with electricity from renewables and storage.