‘Another Little Epic Fury’: Trump’s Chilling Iran Threat Puts the ‘Marrickville Brawler’ to the Test as Labor MPs Grow Restless and Australians Face Fuel Shortages at Home
- Donald Trump has told a Florida rally the US “may do another little Epic Fury”, raising fears of a new escalation in a war with Iran that is now nearing its eighth month
- In 2003, Anthony Albanese joined 40 other Labor MPs and senators in signing a letter to George W Bush against the Iraq invasion. As Prime Minister, he backed this year’s strikes on Iran
- The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has drained Australia’s fuel reserves and pushed bowser prices sharply higher, and Canberra still has no clear exit plan
- Britain is telling households to stockpile three days of essentials. Australia has issued no such warning, despite growing signs it is just as exposed
It took just six words, delivered with a shrug at a campaign rally.
“We may do another little Epic Fury,” Donald Trump told supporters in Florida last week. He gave no detail and no timeline, and he made no attempt to explain what a fresh wave of military action against Iran might involve.
For a war that has rattled global energy markets and left Australian motorists wincing at the petrol pump, the casual remark landed like a grenade in Canberra.
Operation Epic Fury is the US military’s name for its campaign against Iran. It began in February as a joint offensive with Israel and was sold as a swift, decisive strike.
Almost eight months later, it shows no sign of ending. Even senior figures inside the Albanese government privately concede they have no idea when it will.
Federal parliament returns for a sitting week under that cloud. The awkward question facing the Prime Minister is how far he is now willing to stand beside the man in the White House.
When the bombs first fell in February, Anthony Albanese did not hesitate. Flanked by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles, he issued a statement backing the action.
It cited two reasons: stopping Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons and safeguarding Australians living in the Middle East.
The language at the time was about a short, sharp operation. That promise has evaporated.
The fallout has reached Australian shores.
The shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane through which a large share of the world’s oil passes, sent the government scrambling as domestic fuel stocks ran dangerously low and prices surged.
Families, tradies, truckies and farmers have all felt it, adding to an already punishing cost of living crisis.
Supporting this war marks a striking turn for Albanese, given who he used to be.
Cast back to 2003. Albanese was a relatively fresh opposition frontbencher, holding the shadow portfolio for employment services and training.
He was not famous for policy work. He was famous for fighting.
When John Howard committed Australia to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Albanese was one of the loudest voices against it.
He and his long-time factional rival Tanya Plibersek were among 41 Labor MPs and senators who put their names to an open letter addressed to President George W Bush.
The letter argued that pre-emptive military action would make the world more dangerous, not safer.
Plibersek said at the time the group wanted Washington to understand that many Australians, the Labor Party included, rejected the war, and to know exactly why.
In parliament that March, Albanese went further.
In a fiery speech that helped cement his nickname, “the Marrickville Brawler”, he accused the Howard government of recasting Australia as a willing backer of American militarism.
He claimed the decision to go to war had been settled months earlier, before troops were even deployed. Australia, he said, had not even been in the room.
He warned that endorsing a pre-emptive strike would permanently change the rules of international politics. Albanese was careful to say he did not oppose regime change in Baghdad.
His objection was to the method.
Two decades on, the brawler has softened. He came close to never reaching the top job after losing Labor’s 2013 leadership ballot to Bill Shorten.
Now he relishes reminding opponents and colleagues alike of the record 94-seat majority he won at the last election. But governing has demanded a pragmatism the young firebrand never needed.
And this time, he does not need to sign a letter. He has the President’s phone number.
Analysis: What This Means for Australia
The stakes for Australia go well beyond diplomatic awkwardness.
On national security, a fresh escalation would deepen Australia’s exposure to a conflict it does not control. It could test the AUKUS alliance and raise the risk to Australians across the Gulf region.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would again face pressure to manage consular emergencies at short notice.
The economic danger is immediate. Australia imports the vast majority of its refined fuel and has long struggled to meet international stockholding obligations.
Any renewed disruption in the Strait of Hormuz would hit fuel prices, freight costs and grocery bills almost overnight, and the Reserve Bank of Australia would be left to deal with the inflationary aftershock.
Politically, the risks for Labor are just as sharp. At the last election, the party quietly positioned itself as the anti-Trump choice and painted Peter Dutton as a Trump-style figure.
That pitch will be hard to make a second time if the government stays in lockstep with an increasingly unpopular president.
The backbench has stayed largely silent through eight months of war.
In recent weeks, however, a handful of Labor MPs have begun speaking up, and many quietly hope for a far tougher stance on both Iran and Washington.
A new escalation could be the moment that frustration spills into public view.
Across the community, there is a growing sense that the world is spinning out of control. Many Australians feel they are absorbing the chaos while others make the decisions.
Britain is responding to that anxiety head-on. Rattled by the wars in Ukraine and Iran and by a string of cyber attacks, the UK government has launched a “be ready” campaign.
It urges households to keep three days of supplies, including bottled water, non-perishable food, a battery or wind-up FM radio and cash in case electronic payments fail.
Wes Streeting told BBC One’s Question Time the advice was not tied to any specific threat but was about everyday national resilience, such as coping with a power cut or a cyber attack on a local shop.
He rejected claims of scaremongering, saying the government wanted people alert rather than alarmed, and admitting European neighbours were well ahead of Britain.
If Europe is ahead of Britain, it is fair to ask where Australia stands.
Security analysts say Australia’s distance from the conflict offers little real protection, given its heavy dependence on imported fuel and fragile supply chains.
Law enforcement insiders warn that cyber threats tied to overseas conflicts are already probing Australian infrastructure, a risk regularly flagged by the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
Political observers, including ABC analyst Patricia Karvelas, believe a fresh escalation could become the pressure point that forces Albanese to choose between alliance loyalty and the anti-war instincts that once defined him.
Canberra has not yet told Australians to start stockpiling. But every signal suggests the nation is in uncharted waters, and Trump’s throwaway line may be the warning nobody in government wanted to hear.