Friday, 20 March - Because I'm happy

Good morning, it’s Friday, 20 March. In your Squiz Today…

• A national taskforce has been appointed to oversee our fuel supplies

• Far North Queensland residents take cover as Cyclone Narelle approaches

• And prawn crackers to please a crowd… 🦐

🎧 Listen to the podcast

🤓 This email will take you 7 minutes to read

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Queen Mary of Denmark when asked how she felt passing her old school, Taroona High. The Tassie-born monarch was back on home turf in Hobart with her husband King Frederik for the last day of their official state visit. Those school reunions would be fun…

Going fuel force

The Squiz

As rising petrol prices continue to dominate the news (and our conversations…), the federal government has appointed a new national fuel taskforce to oversee our response to the oil crisis we’re facing as a result of the war in the Middle East. It’ll be led by Anthea Harris, the former head of our national energy regulator, and her job will be to make sure we don’t run out of petrol or diesel. PM Anthony Albanese was quick to reassure people that we currently don’t have a fuel shortage; that shortages in regional areas were down to increased demand, but he said “the best outcome is to ensure that Australia is over-prepared”.  

How will the taskforce work?

At the moment, the federal government manages our big fuel stockpiles, but state and territory governments control how it gets to petrol stations. As the coordinator and the government’s single point of contact, Harris will make sure they’re all on the same page - she’ll keep an eye on how much fuel is on hand and make sure it goes where it’s needed. It’s a big job, and her first day coincided with a 5% jump in oil prices following an Israeli strike on Iranian facilities at the South Pars gasfield - the world’s largest. It prompted retaliatory attacks by Iran on Gulf State energy targets - and one missile strike damaged the world's biggest liquefied natural gas export plant in Qatar. The escalation has sparked fears that the conflict will widen, which would likely place even more pressure on the energy supply chain and prices.

Who’s watching prices at home?

The ACCC for one - the watchdog is investigating claims of anti-competitive conduct by major fuel suppliers Ampol, BP, Mobil, and Viva Energy. It follows complaints from consumers, motoring groups and farmers/producers who’ve struggled to find fuel in the past 3 weeks. It’s still early days for the investigation, but chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said due to “the significance of the issue” she was making it public. She noted it’s important that the fuel market and the community know the regulator is watching the market closely “and we will not hesitate to act swiftly”. Companies found price-gouging face fines of up to $100 million per offence. Singling out service stations yesterday, the PM said: “There’s no place for any company to try to take advantage of this to increase their profits at the expense of Australians.”

The geopolitics of it all

Politics affects so much of what happens with trade, energy, security and economic confidence. It's all connected. This explainer unpacks what it means when you hear about ‘geopolitics’ in the news and why what happens globally impacts us in Australia. Read this and more financial stories shaping the country at CommBank Newsroom.

Squiz the Rest

Battening down the hatches

Residents of Far North Queensland are taking cover this morning, with Tropical Cyclone Narelle set to make landfall around 7am local time as a category 5 storm, with wind gusts of more than 250km/hr. It’s due to cross the coast between the Aboriginal community of Lockhart River and Cape Melville - and the inland town of Coen (population 330) is in its path. At this intensity, Narelle will be the strongest storm to hit Cape York since Cyclone Mahina, which killed more than 300 people in 1899. Back then, there weren’t warning systems in place, but that’s not the case today - Premier David Crisafulli has the army, shipping containers of supplies and emergency generators standing by, and police have been going door-to-door to make sure locals are prepared. He said the community is used to big storms, but warned: “I can’t sugar-coat this. The damage will be widespread.”

Crowing to the polls

As we mentioned yesterday, tomorrow is voting day in the South Oz election, and it's going to be a gargantuan task for anyone to upset the incumbent Labor government and Premier Peter Malinauskas. Let's have a quick tour through the numbers - nominally, Labor has 29 seats, the Libs have 16 and there are 2 on the crossbench. Given new Liberal leader Ashton Hurn is facing the country's most popular state Premier in Malinauskas, that means she already has quite a job ahead of her - she’s only been in the job for 100 days - but it looks like her party might actually go backwards, as it’s being outpolled by One Nation (paywall) and looks likely to end up with a seat count in the single digits. If you’re heading to the polls tomorrow and feeling peckish, here’s the super-useful democracy sausage map to help out… 

Settling an old beef

European Union President Ursula Von der Leyen will visit Oz next week to meet with the PM as we prepare to sign a historic free trade agreement. It's worth a cool $110 billion and it's been a long time coming (talks began back in 2018…) but the beef over how much meat Aussie farmers are allowed to sell in European countries - which stalled the deal in 2023 - is yet to be resolved. As well as lifting tariffs on European cars and other imports into Oz, tariffs on our exports of critical minerals will be removed - and a defence pact is also in the works. The deal has been spurred on by US tariffs and global instability, and both sides are confident it'll get over the line. Von der Leyen will arrive on Monday; she'll meet with the PM the next day, so keep an ear out for the popping of (soon to be cheaper) champagne…

Tillies on the field

Our national women’s football team is facing their biggest challenge of the Asian Cup tournament so far, as they prepare to take on Japan in the final tomorrow night at 8pm (AEDT). Japan’s a scary prospect - they’re currently the 6th-ranked team in the world and the Matildas are #15, so they’ll be outsiders in the final. But in front of a sold-out home crowd, you never know… Another hot ticket on Saturday night will be the first game in the best-of-5 NBL finals series, with the Sydney Kings facing off against the Adelaide 36ers for basketball supremacy. The Kings are favoured to win it all, but with MVP Bryce Cotton on their side, Adelaide can’t be counted out. The action begins at 7pm (AEDT) tomorrow night.

If you’re happy and you know it, you’re a Fin… 

…because Finland has once again topped the World Happiness Report’s rankings for the happiest country in the world. It’s the ninth win on the trot for the cheerfulness champions of the world, and you didn’t have to go far for second and third - Iceland and Denmark completed a Nordic sweep. These rankings are published annually by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford; they look at 6 main categories of contentment, including GDP per capita, life expectancy and generosity. The report also noted that social media was a downer on satisfaction - happiness was highest amongst countries that kept screentime on the low side. And as for Oz - we're 15th, between Belgium and Kosovo, and 4 spots behind New Zealand. Ouch…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

There’s a lot of buzz about Ryan Gosling’s new film Project Hail Mary, which is based on a book by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian. We’ve seen it and we can confirm, it’s a lot of fun and a little bit inspiring… 

We’ve been enjoying Young Sherlock, the new Sherlock Holmes origin story on Prime Video. It stars Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Colin Firth (in very dapper suits) and the first 2 eps are directed by Guy Ritchie - he directed the Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes films. It's TV that goes well with a bowl of popcorn… 

We dig a good bar snack (Margot Robbie calls them fivesies…) and we reckon these prawn crackers (with real prawns, not the chip version) are going to be crowd pleasing nibbles to pass around over the Easter period - they’re easy, crispy and tasty.

Squiz the Day

Friday
9.30am (AEDT) - Cricket: Women's National Cricket League final, NSW v Queensland. This is Alyssa Healy's final top-level match for NSW, at Sydney Olympic Park - Sydney, watch on Kayo 

9.30am (AEDT) - Leigh Geoffrey Sushames to appear in Burnie Supreme Court charged with the alleged murder of police officer constable Keith Smith - Burnie, Tasmania 

9.30am (AEDT) - Cricket: Women’s T20 International, Australia v West Indies, at Arnos Vale Ground - St Vincent, watch on Kayo 

10.15am (AEDT) - Court hearing in the class action lawsuit against Medibank on behalf of those affected by the 2022 data breach, Federal Court of Australia - Melbourne

World Athletics Indoor Championship (until 22 March) - Poland, watch on 9now

CMC Rocks Festival begins (until 22 March) - Queensland 

Eid al Fitr, begins at sunset (until 21 March) - a celebration that marks the end of Ramadan 

✨ International Astrology Day

International Day of Happiness 

World Storytelling Day 

Birthdays for Aussie author David Malouf (1934), film director Spike Lee (1957), actor Holly Hunter (1958), actor David Thewlis (1963) and Aussie model/actor Ruby Rose (1986)

Anniversary of:

• the founding of restaurant chain KFC (1930)

• the marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1969), and David and Angie Bowie (1970)

• Oz closing the international border in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020)

• the deaths of former PM Malcolm Fraser (2015) and country singer Kenny Rogers (2020)

Saturday
12.05pm (AEDT) - Aussie Rules: Tasmanian Devils play their inaugural VFL game against Coburg. The Devils will enter the AFL competition in 2028, North Hobart Oval - Tasmania, watch on 7plus 

2.00pm (AEDT) - The Royal Australian Navy’s 125th Anniversary International Fleet Review, featuring up to 30 naval vessels from Australia and around the world - Sydney Harbour

7.00pm (AEDT) - Basketball: NBL final game one Sydney Kings v Adelaide 36ers, Qudos Bank Arena - Sydney, watch on Kayo

8.00pm (AEDT) - Football: Women's Asian Cup Final, Matildas v Japan, Accor Stadium - Sydney, watch on 10 Play 

South Australia state election

Cake Picnic’s on in Melbourne

Harmony Day 

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Nowruz (Persian) New Year

World Poetry Day

🌲International Day of Forests 

Birthdays for actors Gary Oldman (1958) and Matthew Broderick - aka Ferris Bueller - (1962)

Anniversary of:

• the death of Pocahontas (1617)

• Persia officially being renamed Iran (1935)

• Ethiopia abolishing its monarchy after 3,000 years (1975)

• Russia annexing the Crimean Peninsula (2014)

Sunday
9.30am (AEDT) - Cricket: Women’s T20 International Australia v West Indies, Arnos Vale Stadium - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, watch on 7plus 

Slovenia general election

🦭 International Day of the Seal 

Birthdays for actor William Shatner (1931), author James Patterson (1947), composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948), actor Reese Witherspoon (1976) and actor Constance Wu (1982)

Anniversary of:

• the US confirming its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong (1965)

• the Brussels terror attack which killed 35 (2016)

• a terror attack on London's Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament, which killed 4 people (2017)