Albo government’s perfect storm of weakness

We do not need a government that hides the bacon at the back of the supermarket of policy.

Yet here we are, a resource-rich nation pleading with others while global supply chains buckle under the weight of conflict in the Middle East. The fuel crisis and the attendant energy price pain are not abstract. They are the lived experience of every Australian filling up at the bowser or watching power bills climb.

And they arrive as part of a perfect storm that reveals something deeper about the Albanese Labor government. A pattern of weakness that is now unmistakable.

Consider the converging crises. The fuel emergency is immediate and visceral, born of global events but exacerbated by years of domestic energy policy that left Australia exposed. The energy crisis has been simmering for longer. Policy choices that privileged ideology over baseload reliability, now colliding with external shock.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albo government’s perfect storm of weakness.

Mr Albanese flies to Singapore, then Brunei and Malaysia, seeking guarantees for fuel and fertiliser in the same week ordinary Australians are being urged to ‘drive less’ via taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns. Indeed, 20 million dollars. Enough, already.

In Brunei, the Prime… pic.twitter.com/LmWwqogxIT

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) April 15, 2026

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

Chris Bowen's energy policy platform is a lot like a dead fish.

You have to feel a tad sorry for Energy Minister Chris Bowen. He had a tough week of bruising press conferences. Never mind, his leadership is unequivocal. That bold renewables target? Totally achievable, even if he doesn’t like mentioning it except under the duress of a hostile journalist. Bowen is probably checking his tyres on the way to another renewables announcement as we speak, making sure his EV fleet is topped up from the nearest solar panel before lecturing the rest of us about the urgency to transition away from reliable power.

My latest edition of What did I miss? Australia's political week in fast-forward in The Spectator Australia.

Anthony Albanese sulked, cap in hand, to Singapore.

Fossil fuel is better for the environment if someone else drills for it – or so goes the logic of the Labor Party which has been forced to walk its Renewable Empire election promise parallel to the most pro-carbon trade trip… pic.twitter.com/XxUnHJn2cT

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) April 12, 2026

Zen and the art of truck driving

The ten rules I wish I didn’t have to learn the hard way.

Philosophy, at its best, is not some airy-fairy meditation on the meaning of life. It is a set of rules for living. The ancient Stoics understood this better than most. Epictetus gave us the Enchiridion, interpreted as a literal ‘handbook’ of reminders you have to keep rereading because your monkey brain keeps forgetting.

Another well-known Stoic, Seneca, confessed that he never came home from the Roman forum with quite the same moral character he had when he left. Something always became unsettled. He needed the quiet of his study to recompose himself.

A truck driver has no such luxury. The road does the recomposing for you, whether you like it or not. And it does it with the subtlety of a 20-crate dolly sliding off a wet foot-control ramp.

Epictetus’ idea of reason was based on the divine, active, and ruling faculty within human beings that allows them to distinguish between what is under their control and what is not.

Truck driving, however, is a lesson in the fact that you don’t control anything.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Our Michael de Percy has many hats. Academic. Journalist. Former military officer. Truckie. Of the latter hat, one can say that Michael has drive, and he has writing an insightful satirical take on the truckie’s professional life. Unlike your scribe, who’s never missed taking a wrong turn in life, Michael ‘Rubber Duck’ de Percy drives straight and true.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Zen and the art of truck driving.

The next time you see a truckie 🚚 staring into the middle distance at the servo, don’t assume he’s daydreaming.

He’s probably just recomposing himself after another lesson he didn’t ask for but definitely won’t forget...

Article | https://t.co/SDHxxfNcZo pic.twitter.com/KqLeSO7AAY

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) April 12, 2026