All the options under the sun

Currently the biofuels target is set at the ludicrously low level of 350 ML per year - just one per cent of current consumption. And it’s not mandatory.

If it is correct that the Howard Government has been elected through an unspoken pact with the public to keep petrol prices down, then surely here is Howard’s weakest point - and Labor’s best option.

What are you doing, Kim Beazley? When will Labor make the rising cost of imported oil to Australian taxpayers the centrepiece of its campaign? When will you back a drastic increase in the biofuels mandatory target - agreed upon by the oil majors and enforced - and tell the punters how much it will save them at the petrol pump?

Here we have a solution to greenhouse gas emissions that is much more appealing than Howard’s nuclear option. All it requires is a mandatory biofuels target to be set in law - one that the oil majors have to meet, set by a prime minister who is prepared to stand up to them.