CANBERRA, Australia - April 24, 2026 - A few weeks of high fuel prices have destroyed 20 years of climate propaganda.
Australians have barely mentioned drilling for oil in Australia in the last twenty years. It was unthinkable. However, two new polls show a dramatic awakening. Suddenly Australian voters want more oil and gas. In the first poll, 65% supported more drilling for oil and gas, and in the second poll it was 57%. These are whopping majorities, and we have barely started to discuss it.
Only a small minority (just 16%) were still waving the green flag and are opposed to oil drilling. Rarely in a democracy do we see so many people line up on the opposite side of the government policy.
Negativity to renewables is rising. I don’t see how the Net Zero forced revolution is going to survive high fuel and electricity prices.
More than 70% of Australians support the development of new fuel refineries and 65% of voters back more oil and gas drilling in the wake of the Middle East war, as resistance to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s renewables revolution grows.
Amid rising concerns about Australia’s fuel security following a fire at one of the two remaining oil refineries in the country, the poll showed surging support in favor of new refineries (73%), unlocking more oil and gas to produce more fuel (65%).
Only 10% of Australians oppose developing more refineries and 16% reject allowing more oil and gas drilling.
The Mood of the Nation survey, (April 7-13), revealed “record high negativity towards the renewable energy transition”. The SECNewgate Mood of the Nation survey was given to 1237 voters across every state and territory.
A new Sky News poll of 1,500 Australians also finds that an overwhelming majority want more oil and gas drilling, even if it undermines Net Zero emissions.
The numbers are so stark that even 47% of Labor voters support oil and gas exploration. If the opposition makes this an election issue, the Labor Party will bleed voters; but the Liberals are vulnerable too. If they don’t champion oil and gas exploration, they will bleed votes to the Nationals and One Nation.
It is not surprising that Australians are so willing to drop Net Zero. Hardly anyone ever really cared about this abstract United Nations policy. Last year half the country did not want to spend a single cent more to reach Net Zero targets and 83% did not want us to raise the target (which the Labor government then did anyway).
Policies that are the opposite of what 80% of the voters want aren’t supposed to happen in a Democracy, yet the Labor Party did it anyway.