I caught the tail end of the same interview on Thursday night while driving to work. It was on ABC radio (country driving so no other station was in range!) at about 2200-0000. I'm pretty sure the bloke was called Mac Tucker so any RAAF guys here will know who he is. Will be getting his book when available.
Just thinking about fuel an F/A-18A has an internal capacity of almost 5000kg which is roughly 6250L of avtur, at roughly $1.50L is $9375 which the jet can get through in less than an hour if the pilot so desires. That's alot of tax dollars but i'd rather see my tax go to training knucks than wasted on green schemes and other government rubbish.