Analysis

    BC.Game is a popular crypto-focused online casino and sportsbook known for its original blockchain games, fast crypto payments, and community-driven features. If you’re browsing it from Australia, there are also important regulatory and consumer-protection considerations to keep in mind. What Is BC.Game? Launched in 2017, BC.Game is an international gambling platform built around…

Best Online Casinos in Australia – No deposit Bonuses Australian online casinos keep growing in popularity. More than 80% of adults in Australia try their luck at some form of gambling. The country's total gambling revenue should reach USD 15.43 billion by 2025. Online gambling alone might generate USD 5.99 billion during this period. Players…

Stake.com is one of the most recognizable names in the global crypto-casino and sports betting industry. Since launching in 2017, it has built a reputation for fast payments, a huge variety of games, and a smooth user experience trusted by millions of players worldwide. Known for its crypto-first approach, Stake combines a highly modern interface…

By Ehsan Noroozinejad, Western Sydney University and Greg Morrison, Western Sydney University Australia is currently facing twin crises: housing and climate change. A lot more homes are needed, fast. Australia’s housing crisis isn’t just an affordability issue. It damages mental health over the long term. But building more houses contributes substantially to carbon emissions. There’s…

By Stefan Skorut Amid the general enthusiasm for the Trump-Albanese critical minerals deal, it’s vital for policymakers to be aware that the potential benefits could be wasted if Australia does not continue to support our globally leading innovation.  The highly anticipated $US 8.5 billion deal aims to address a key feature of critical minerals markets:…

By Michael Preuss, Monash University; University of Manchester and Maggie Zhai, RMIT University There has been much excitement since Australia signed a landmark agreement with the United States last month to expand cooperation on critical minerals and rare earth elements. These materials are essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and clean energy technologies. The deal…

APAC and applications are big parts to the current additive manufacturing story, attendees at a launch event for the new Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre heard last week. The AM CRC is a seven-year effort expected to invest over $250 million developing “a world-class additive manufacturing ecosystem” in this nation.  Keynote Terry Wohlers, founder of…

By Amir Razmjou, Edith Cowan University Critical minerals are having a moment. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is at the White House to talk up Australia’s rich deposits with President Donald Trump. China, which has a global stranglehold on rare earth elements, recently imposed new export restrictions, much to Trump’s annoyance. It’s clear there’s an era…

By Roy Green Readers of @AuManufacturing will be familiar with John Howard’s prodigious contribution to public policy debate on the evolution of our national research and innovation system. His deep understanding of both the theoretical underpinnings and practical application of policy in this area was reflected in his recent book, Thinking in public: Australia’s missing…

By John Quiggin, The University of Queensland The federal government’s announcement of a A$600 million rescue package for Glencore’s copper smelting and refining operations in Mount Isa and Townsville marks a definitive shift in Australia’s industry policy. The announcement follows the $2.4 billion rescue of the Whyalla steelworks, and a smaller assistance package for metals…

By Deanna D'Alessandro, University of Sydney The 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded for the development of metal–organic frameworks: molecular structures that have large spaces within them, capable of capturing and storing gases and other chemicals. The prize is shared by Susumu Kitagawa from Kyoto University, Omar M. Yaghi from the University of…

By John Griffin, Lancaster University Three scientists have been awarded the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry for discovering a new form of molecular architecture: crystals that contain large cavities. Susumu Kitagawa from Kyoto University, Japan, Richard Robson from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Omar M. Yaghi from the University of California, Berkeley, in the…

By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Two years ago, Snowy Hydro announced a reset for its troubled Snowy 2.0 giant pumped hydro project amid cost blowouts. The supposed final cost was A$12 billion. Last week, Snowy Hydro acknowledged this figure was no longer viable after a cost reassessment. I estimate the final cost will be well…

By Michael Buchanan and Prof. Renu Agarwal A recent Australian Financial Review article on the demise of Energy Renaissance shows domestic manufacturing’s commercial success requires purchase orders. Initiatives such as the government’s Future Made in Australia won’t have economic impact on a grants program alone – they need subsequent protection of nascent domestic capability and…

By Cristian Iordache Running a manufacturing business today means wearing multiple hats: managing people, balancing cash flow, hitting growth targets. But if you’re not treating cybersecurity as operational infrastructure that’s as essential as your payroll or plant management system, then you’re likely already exposed. High profile manufacturing breaches are not uncommon. Advanced malware is not the fastest-growing…

By Niusha Shafiabady, Australian Catholic University and Xiaoying Qi, Australian Catholic University For more than a century, global geopolitics has revolved around oil and gas. Countries with big fossil fuel reserves, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have amassed significant wealth and foreign influence, helping shape the world order. But the global shift toward renewable…

By Andrea Morello, UNSW Sydney Quantum entanglement — once dismissed by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance” — has long captured the public imagination and puzzled even seasoned scientists. But for today’s quantum practitioners, the reality is rather more mundane: entanglement is a kind of connection between particles that is the quintessential feature…

By Tony Wood, Grattan Institute The federal government has announced a long-awaited climate change target for 2035, committing to a reduction in emissions of between 62 per cent and 70 per cent below 2005 levels. Environmentalists claim the target is a failure, while some business groups and the opposition are likely to slam it as…

By Theresa Wolf and Andrea Willige Automation helped shape the First Industrial Revolution – and it continues to evolve in today’s Fourth. While automation has long been part of the manufacturing landscape, recent advances in artificial intelligence, vision systems and robotics hardware are enabling a new generation of more intelligent and adaptable machines. A new…

Following the launch of a new campaign by the Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance aiming to “challenge outdated stereotypes” attached to manufacturing, Professor Beth Webster and Dr Alexander Gosling focus on some common misconceptions about what drives competitiveness in the industry.  It is a myth that manufacturing can only thrive in low wage environments.  Much publicly-aired…

Leon Poggioli shares what manufacturers should include in their cybersecurity program, laying out five core principles of operational technology cybersecurity.  Manufacturing is consistently one of the top critical infrastructure sectors targeted by cyber criminals. Many hacking groups believe that manufacturers are more willing to meet ransom demands than other organisations, given that any degree of…

By Dr Jens Goennemann AMGC’s role is to stand behind all aspiring manufacturers across the nation. This means speaking on behalf of our network of 8,000 and broader industry in forums that will deliver cut-through for small-to-medium-sized (SME) manufacturers – representing the large majority of Australian manufacturers. Lately, this has taken us to numerous Government-led…

By Nicola Charwat, Monash University Until this week, thousands of Australian small businesses that exported to the United States relied on a simple system that had worked for decades. Parcels worth less than US$800 (A$1225) could enter the US tax-free under the “de minimis” rule for low-value goods. But from August 29, that exemption will…

By Bhavna Middha, RMIT University; Ralph Horne, RMIT University, and Vincent Pettigrove, RMIT University Last month, Australia’s ban on the import, use and manufacture of three types of “forever chemical” came into effect. These chemicals – PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS – have long lifespans and resist breaking down. They’re considered harmful due to their ability…

Appreciation has grown in the last decade or so for a modern, holistic view of manufacturing. It’s “more than just production”, you will have heard countless times, and production is the lowest point in the “smiley curve” model of where value is added.  The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, for example, chose to open its inaugural…

Tropes about high costs don't tell the whole story when it comes to making things in Australia. Those aren't the real reasons why the industry's share of GDP is so low, explains Dominic Parsonson. Manufacturing isn’t a “nice to have” for Australia, it’s a pillar of growth, resilience and national security. Yet whenever we talk…

By Melanie MacGregor, Flinders University Progress towards a legally binding global treaty on plastics pollution stalled and went into reverse this week. The United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, ran overtime. It’s likely to conclude this evening, without agreement. This is an incredibly disappointing result. As a member of the Scientists’ Coalition…

Solar module maker Tindo Solar was recently awarded $34.5 million in federal government support. Here CEO Richard Petterson answers criticism about assistance to local companies in terms of the “potential unfair advantage” enjoyed by other nations selling into Australia.  The big news in renewables last week was the government’s $34.5 million commitment to domestic manufacturing…

By Aayushi Badhwar, RMIT University Today’s consumers are swimming in a sea of information. Products are marketed with big, bold words such as “sustainable”, “ethical” and “organic”. They sound good, they catch our attention, and they make us feel better about what we buy. The reality is, in today’s market, figuring out which claims are…

By Magnus Söderberg, Griffith University Building a solar farm in Australia is getting about 8% cheaper each year as panel prices fall and technology improves, according to an official new report. Battery storage costs are falling even more sharply, dropping 20% over the past year alone. But the same can’t be said for wind farms,…

By Christoph Nedopil, Griffith University Australia has flourished as an export powerhouse for decades. Much of this prosperity has been driven by the nation’s natural endowment with two important raw products for producing steel the traditional way: iron ore and metallurgical coal. Worth more than A$100 billion in 2024, Australia’s iron ore shipments to China…

Australia's innovation system is constrained by a persistent failure to translate world-class research into industrial capability and commercial outcomes. Drawing lessons from the German city of Kaiserslautern and its transformation through Fraunhofer Institutes, Dr John Howard and Peter Moar argue that Australia must have applied research institutes dedicated to bridging the gap between universities and…

You have to get a lot right, but there’s an element of right place, right time when it comes to selling water heaters. According to Simon Terry, who runs one of the last three companies making water heaters in Australia, it’s a “no-interest category”, and you’re in the market once every 15 years. “My wife…

By Roy Green For a while it looked like federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ Economic Reform Roundtable would turn into a tax summit, such was the clamour to revisit missed opportunities. And we have an abundance of those in Australia.  However, the intended focus on Australia’s lagging productivity performance has appropriately been retained in the current…

The precise problem solving skillset that forms a great engineer is increasingly being utilised in a broader business perspective by organisations seeking to gain a competitive advantage. Those who once focused solely on system design, compliance and delivery are now being asked to take a seat at the executive table, contribute to commercial strategy and…

Bin Lu, Australian National University and Marnie Shaw, Australian National University As the electrification of transport and heating accelerates, many worry the increased demand could overload national power grids. In Australia, electricity consumption is expected to double by 2050. If everyone charges their car and heats water using electric systems at the same time, peak…

By Anurag Srivastava, West Virginia University It’s hard work soaking up sunlight to generate clean electricity. After about 25 to 30 years, solar panels wear out. Over the years, heating and cooling cycles stress the materials. Small cracks develop, precipitation corrodes the frame and layers of materials can start to peel apart. In 2023, about…

By Alison Reeve, Grattan Institute As the world looks for ways to tackle climate change, Australia has invested heavily in green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is shaping as the best option to strip carbon emissions from some industrial processes, such as iron-making and ammonia production. But making the dream a reality in Australia is proving difficult.…

By Joe Carrello, The University of Melbourne US President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Australia’s pharmaceutical exports to the United States has raised alarm among industry and government leaders. There are fears that, if implemented, the tariffs could cost the Australian economy up to A$2.8 billion. That’s both in direct exports and as inputs to…

By Madoc Sheehan, James Cook University Green hydrogen is touted by some as the future – a way for Australia to slowly replace its reliance on fossil fuel exports. The energy-dense gas has the potential to reduce emissions in sectors challenging to decarbonise, such as steelmaking and fertiliser manufacturing. The Albanese government wants it to…

Focus and finance were the dominant themes at Spotlight on Scaling Up, a recent half-day seminar by @AuManufacturing in partnership with AMGC, BDO, and the Australian Business Growth Fund. Keynote speakers Alf and Nadia Taylor shared their adventure from husband-and-wife engineering consultancy to an international food packaging and processing solution provider with a headcount of over 600…

By Peter Mullner, Boise State University Many modern devices – from cellphones and computers to electric vehicles and wind turbines – rely on strong magnets made from a type of minerals called rare earths. As the systems and infrastructure used in daily life have turned digital and the United States has moved toward renewable energy,…

Chemical manufacturing is an energy-intensive industry. A team of chemists is designing a technique that could power the necessary reactions with sunlight or LEDs.

Australia’s grant system is working exactly as designed. And that’s the problem, writes Paul Carmignani, Managing Director of Powertech. Right now, if you’re a small business or a not-for-profit, there’s likely a funding stream available to help you test an idea, buy equipment or build capability. If you’re a multinational or a university, there’s even…

By Colette Southam, Bond University The federal government wants to boost Australia’s productivity levels – as a matter of national priority. It’s impossible to have that conversation without also talking about innovation. We can be proud of (and perhaps a little surprised by) some of the Australian innovations that have changed the world – such…

By Christian Downie, Australian National University President Donald Trump is trying to unravel the signature climate policy of his predecessor Joe Biden, the Inflation Reduction Act, as part of a sweeping bid to dismantle the United States’ climate ambition. The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, is a A$530 billion suite of measures that aims to…

By Gediminas Lipnickas, University of South Australia In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken centre stage across various industries. From AI-generated art to chatbots in customer service, every sector is seemingly poised for disruption. It’s not just in your news feed every day – venture capital is pouring in, while CEOs are eager to…

Australia stands at a pivotal juncture in its industrial evolution, according to Dr Thomas Nann, CEO at flow battery business Allegro Energy.  The convergence of technological innovation, strategic investment, and a renewed focus on sovereign capability heralds a renaissance in advanced manufacturing. I’ll use the journey of my own company, Allegro Energy, as an example…

Groundhog Day: The annual Harvard Growth Lab’s Economic Complexity Index (ECI) figures have been released – and Australia’s ranking has dropped, again. By Dr Jens Goennemann. Australia now ranks 105th in the world in the measure of the complexity of the products it produces placing us between Botswana and Côte d’Ivoire. Let me repeat that: Botswana…

By Scott French, UNSW Sydney Just one day after the US Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated the Trump Administration’s Liberation Day tariffs of between 10 per cent and 50 per cent on nearly every country in the world, Trump announced tariffs on all US imports of steel and aluminium will increase from 25 per cent…

Australia's approach to industry policy over the past six decades tells a story of remarkable institutional restlessness. By Dr John H Howard. Between 1963 and 2025, the federal industry portfolio has been reorganised approximately 20 times—a major restructure roughly every three years. This extraordinary pattern of bureaucratic instability reveals far more than administrative tinkering; it…

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes industries across the globe, Australian manufacturing faces a critical crossroads. To remain competitive in increasingly advanced global markets, Australian businesses must urgently adopt smart, high-tech solutions, writes Graeme Sheather.  The emergence of AI as a dominant force is no longer a distant threat—it's a present-day disruptor altering the foundation of…

By Samantha Hepburn, Deakin University In a decision surprising very few people, Australia’s new environment minister Murray Watt has signed off on an extension for the gas plant at Karratha, part of the enormous North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project. The decision had been deferred until after the federal election, given significant environmental concerns…

In the final day of our Celebrating Australian Made editorial series, sponsored by Australian Made, we hear from Western Metalworx. It’s been said that it takes an Australian made design to stand up to Australian conditions. Especially when it comes to the mining industry. For West Australian, Malaga, West Australian-based steel fabricator Western Metalworx, it’s…

WA sealing itself off during the pandemic pushed Australian Winders towards inhouse production. Nicholas Way speaks to the company's Director, Tony O’Brien, in the latest feature from our Celebrating Australian Made series. Like many businesses, Perth-based Australian Winders was transformed by the COVID pandemic, morphing from a global maintenance and field service specialist in industrial…

The newly-returned government’s ambition to make Australia a manufacturing powerhouse comes with its difficulties, as newly-updated Economic Complexity Index (ECI) rankings show Australia in its worst placing yet. The rankings are published by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Growth Lab and go back to 2000. They measure the sophistication and diversity of a country’s exports.  An…

By Deanna D'Alessandro, University of Sydney and Kate Harrison Brennan, University of Sydney In the wake of Labor’s resounding victory in Australia’s federal election earlier this month, there has been much talk about flailing productivity in Australia. In fact, last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers made clear that the priority for…

A small company in Melbourne makes products from scratch to exploit something most Australians overlook: the potential of their attic. Nicholas Way speaks to Robyn Rutley from AM-BOSS Access Ladders in this instalment of our Celebrating Australian Made series. For many Australians, the space between the ceiling and roof is little more than an afterthought. But…

By Ivan Kassal, University of Sydney and Tingrei Tan, University of Sydney When a molecule absorbs light, it undergoes a whirlwind of quantum-mechanical transformations. Electrons jump between energy levels, atoms vibrate, and chemical bonds shift — all within millionths of a billionth of a second. These processes underpin everything from photosynthesis in plants and DNA…

Today we begin our fifth Celebrating Australian Made editorial series, coinciding with Australian Made Week 2025 (which runs May 19 – 25.)  As has happened each May* since 2021, there is Australian Made Week – a celebration of goods made here, their makers, and the value of supporting them – and there is a Celebrating…

The first company profile in our Celebrating Australian Made editorial series, sponsored by the Australian Made Campaign, is building industry supplier VUETRADE.  Nearly 90 per cent of Australia’s population lives by the coast, by the sea, and that population is growing. So having the right construction materials that can not only help build faster but…

By Ali Abbas, University of Sydney; Dominic Bui Viet, University of Sydney, and Eric Sanjaya, University of Sydney Every year, Australia buries millions of tonnes of waste in landfills. But these sites are filling fast, recycling has its own limitations, and most waste export is banned. So councils and state governments are looking for alternatives.…

By Madeleine North, Senior Writer, Forum Stories When we think about AI transforming industries, manufacturing is probably not the first one that springs to mind. And, yet, the sector is embracing the technology more rapidly than oil, gas and mining, government administration, and even healthcare. Misconceptions about manufacturing are not contained to tech, either. Here, four New Generation Industry…

The revolving door for federal industry ministers has resumed operations, believes John Broadbent. If you're in manufacturing, you might know that Ed Husic MP held the Industry & Science portfolio for the last 3 years. But now, due to what he called a “factional assassin” (being deputy PM, Richard Marles), he's out on his arse…

By Peter Coomber, The University of Queensland and Lisa Nissen, The University of Queensland About 400 medicines are in short supply in Australia. Of these, about 30 are categorised as critical. These are ones with a life-threatening or serious impact on patients, and with no readily available substitutes. Since 2024, there has been a nationwide…

The new government should set its mind to the problem of Australia's industrial structure. Recent feedback from manufacturers suggests that existing programs might be missing the mark. By Dr Jens Goennemann. After a decisive election win, the runway for government, especially a returning one, is at its longest. Therefore, it is a good time to…

It is now well understood by innovation policy analysts and advisers that, on many fronts, Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads in its innovation journey. By John H Howard. The nation’s future prosperity will depend less on the minerals it digs up from the earth or the crops it grows, but increasingly on the code…

By Anne Vo, University of Wollongong At a time of widespread global trade instability, Australia should be expanding and diversifying its economic partnerships. Supply chains remain fragile, and protectionist rhetoric is once again gaining traction in major Western economies. US President Donald Trump’s America First agenda includes sweeping tariffs on imports, withdrawal from multilateral agreements…

Below is the introduction speech from @AuManufacturing’s Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers awards event, held on May 7. You can view the 2025 list here.  Welcome to the awards for Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers, something @AuManufacturing has the great privilege of hosting for the third year running. I’d like to begin by respectfully acknowledging…

By Adrian Beaumont, The University of Melbourne On Saturday, Labor won a thumping victory in the House of Representatives, and this has carried over to the Senate results. Only 35% of enrolled voters have been counted in the Senate so far, compared with 71% in the House. It’s likely that the current Senate count is…

By Nicole Gillespie, Melbourne Business School and Steven Lockey, Melbourne Business School Have you ever used ChatGPT to draft a work email? Perhaps to summarise a report, research a topic or analyse data in a spreadsheet? If so, you certainly aren’t alone. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are rapidly transforming the world of work. Released today,…

By Daryoush Habibi, Edith Cowan University and Yasir Arafat, Edith Cowan University Around the world, more and more electric vehicles are hitting the road. Last year, more than 17 million battery-electric and hybrid vehicles were sold. Early forecasts suggest this year’s figure might reach 20 million. Nearly 20% of all cars sold today are electric.…

By Marina Yue Zhang, University of Technology Sydney In the escalating trade war between the United States and China, one notable exception stood out: 31 critical minerals, including rare earth elements, were strategically exempted from tariffs. This was not a gesture of goodwill. It was a tacit acknowledgment of the United States’ deep dependence on…

By Susan Stone, University of South Australia The past week has seen the United States single-handedly rewrite the underlying paradigm for global trade. And while it is fair to say that the methods are extreme, the underlying goal of the policy is not unique to the US. Indeed, the push to support, and expand, domestic…

In the competitive landscape of modern business, access to cutting-edge research infrastructure can be the difference between stagnation and growth for small to medium enterprises. By David Martin. While many Australian SMEs might view research facilities as the exclusive domain of universities and large corporations, the reality is quite different. Australia boasts a robust ecosystem…

By Dr John H Howard The NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035 provides a valuable strategic foundation for positioning innovation at the heart of the state’s economic and social missions, including housing, clean energy, and advanced industries. It affirms a clear role for government in coordination, investment, and vision-setting and maps a range of early-stage initiatives with…

By Felicity Deane, Queensland University of Technology US President Donald Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on all products entering the US market, with Australian exports set to face a 10% tariff, effective April 5. These import taxes will be charged by US customs on each imported item. The punitive tariffs on 60 countries…

By Sandy Plunkett If Australia’s domestic manufacturing and tech sector had a dollar for every time political leaders have declared — in and out of election campaigns for decades — that innovative SMEs are the engine of the economy, we might have a small but globally significant 21st century manufacturing sector by now. If we…

By Ben Marwick, University of Washington New technologies today often involve electronic devices that are smaller and smarter than before. During the Middle Paleolithic, when Neanderthals were modern humans’ neighbors, new technologies meant something quite different: new kinds of stone tools that were smaller but could be used for many tasks and lasted for a…

Without a concerted effort to develop local refining and manufacturing, Australia will remain dependent on international supply chains for the materials we use, leaving us vulnerable to global disruptions. By Professor Christopher Hutchinson. Australia stands at an important point in its technological and industrial future. While we have abundant raw materials and a wealth of…

By Changyan He, University of Newcastle Most brain surgery requires doctors to remove part of the skull to access hard-to-reach areas or tumours. It’s invasive, risky, and it takes a long time for the patient to recover. We have developed new, tiny robotic surgical tools that may let surgeons perform “keyhole surgery” on the brain.…

The venture capital sector must shift focus from headline valuations and funding rounds to long-term economic contributions, including profitability, job creation, export potential, and flow on investment, argues John H Howard. Here he looks at the growth of VC in Australia, its appeal to policymakers, journalists and others, and calls for a balanced appreciation of…

By Timothy Weber, Australian National University and Andrew Blakers, Australian National University Australia’s energy policy would take a sharp turn if the Coalition wins the upcoming federal election. A Dutton government would seek to build seven nuclear power plants at the sites of old coal-fired power stations. The Coalition says its plan makes smart use…

As we prepare to hand nominations for Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers 2025 over to our judges, we look at an ASX-listed battery recycling company commercialising “deep eutectic solvent” research from the University of Adelaide. Brent Balinski speaks to IonDrive CEO Dr Ebbe Dommisse. There are a lot of ways to not make it when…

By Lisa Toohey, UNSW Sydney “Unjustified” and “not the way that friends and allies should be treated”. That’s how Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have described the latest shot in United States President Trump’s trade war. Effective today, there is a 25% tariff on all imports of steel and aluminium into…

By Shane Albances In the competitive landscape of space technology, agility and speed of innovation are paramount. At Space Machines Company, we made a strategic decision to invest in developing our own satellite propulsion system as well as establishing a propulsion test facility — a capability that has already proven instrumental in accelerating our product…

We do not know when the federal election campaign will start officially. I will use this space to share a handful of manufacturing-related thoughts for whoever forms the next federal government. By Dr Jens Goennemann. Over the last decade, there has been bipartisan appreciation for manufacturing – evidenced mostly by lip service rather than bold…

By Melita Jazbec, University of Technology Sydney; Monique Retamal, University of Technology Sydney; Nick Florin, University of Technology Sydney, and Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney Australians largely support transforming the economy to increase recycling, repurpose products and reduce waste, according to a new report from the Productivity Commission, but they are being impeded by…

Following Julie Harrison's advice earlier this week on how Australian companies can deal with expected US trade policy shifts, Walter Adamson argues tariff walls will do little to help American manufacturers. When it comes to jobs, there are more powerful influences than the placebo of protectionism, and smarter policy options at hand. The notion that…

By Ehsan Noroozinejad, Western Sydney University Australia is in the grip of a severe housing shortage. Many people are finding it extremely difficult to find a place to live in the face of rising rents and property price surges. Homelessness is rising sharply. Tent cities are becoming more common. The federal government has pledged to…

The Australian government has a job to do: to decide not just how we deal with President Trump’s intended tariff regime, but what we do with the responses to those tariffs from major manufacturing territories such as India, China, ASEAN and the EU. By Julie Harrison. The Trump administration has introduced tariffs in its first…

By John H Howard The Strategic Examination of Research and Development (SERD) has been established to report on how a more strategic approach to R&D can boost economic growth and productivity. Expressly, SERD has been requested to examine the optimisation of existing R&D investments across all sectors and how to strengthen research-industry connections, support national priorities…

Daniel Rossetto, University of Adelaide Financial challenges at the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia have reignited debate about the nation’s steel industry and its future. Australians should have access to quality steel at competitive prices. The domestic steel production industry employs tens of thousands of people. The state and federal governments have stepped in, however,…

By Changlong Wang, Monash University and Stuart Walsh, Monash University Hydrogen was once sold as a universal climate fix — a clean, green wonder fuel for cars, homes, power grids and even global export. But reality has cooled that buzz. This week, the South Australian government shelved plans for a A$593 million hydrogen power plant,…

By Geoffrey Brooks, Swinburne University of Technology Whyalla is a proud steel town. The steelworks physically dominates the townscape, and most jobs in the town are either directly at the steelworks or heavily reliant on it. In recent months, however, the steelworks have lurched from one setback to another, from serious technical problems that forced…

In an election year, further promises of tax breaks for businesses are likely. But are they a good idea, and at what cost do these promises come?

Australia has a lot to learn on industrial heat pump adoption from New Zealand, and can benefit from the capacity developed there, writes Amandine Denis-Ryan. Last year research from IEEFA revealed that electrification could slash energy use in industrial processes, using heat pump technology that is commercially available today. However, adoption remains slow in Australia, with…

By Mahdi Bodaghi, Nottingham Trent University Imagine buying a flat sheet from a furniture store that changes into a sofa when you heat it with a hairdryer. Or consider the value of a stent that precisely expands inside a patient’s artery, adapting to their unique anatomy. Welcome to 4D printing, a frontier in material and…

By Sandy Plunkett It is a sad indictment of Australian business complacency that in 2025 – when the world economy and geopolitics are being transformed by AI and data, biomedical and materials sciences, advanced manufacturing and defence technologies – we are still having to explain that innovation is the driver of every modern economy and…

By Scott French, UNSW Sydney US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have stated an exemption for Australia from Trump’s executive order placing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imported into the US is “under consideration”. But prospects remain uncertain. Albanese would do well to secure an exemption using similar arguments as…

By Garritt C. Van Dyk, University of Waikato The day he took office for his second term, United States President Donald J. Trump unveiled his “America First” trade policy, including tariffs on imported goods from Mexico, Canada (both of which have since been paused) and China. President Trump’s reasoning for the tariffs included revitalising the…

By Jens Blotevogel, CSIRO and Naomi Boxall, CSIRO Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store excess renewable energy for later use, supporting the clean energy transition. Australia produces more than 3,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery waste…

By Scott French, UNSW Sydney In a hectic 24 hours of trade diplomacy, US President Donald Trump has paused his threatened 25% tariffs on US imports from Canada and Mexico, while keeping 10% tariffs on imports from China. Australian companies with operations in Canada or Mexico such as Rio Tinto, whose Canadian operations export billions…

By David Armstrong The engineering recruitment market in Australia is experiencing some dynamic changes driven by advancements in technology, sustainability initiatives and economic shifts. Key sectors such as manufacturing and operations, building services and technology are witnessing increasing demand and present great opportunities for engineers with relevant skills. Employers are responding to rising living costs…

By Rajkishore Nayak, RMIT University Vietnam and Donna Cleveland, RMIT University Vietnam If you’ve ever made kombucha, you will be familiar with the term SCOBY – a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It’s impossible to miss – it’s the floating biofilm on top of your delicious drink. While a SCOBY looks gross, it is remarkably…

By Alexey Lebedev Sustainability is no longer just an option for businesses across the country — it’s an imperative.  As Australia prepares for mandatory climate-related  disclosures for ESG reporting, leading companies across every sector are placing a strong focus on their emissions and environmental responsibility. Those organisations in the industrial sector – even those with…

By Tessa Leach, Monash University and Anna Malos, Monash University Aluminium is an exceptionally useful metal. Lightweight, resistant to rust and able to be turned into alloys with other metals. Small wonder it’s the second most used metal in the world after iron and demand is set to soar. But aluminium comes at a cost…

By David Elliott Senior Writer, Forum Stories, World Economic Forum From the climate crisis and geopolitical headwinds to next-generation technologies, a series of complex challenges are rewriting the rulebook for global value chains. Against this backdrop, what are manufacturers and supply chain companies doing to ensure their operations are fit for future success? A new white paper…

By Roy Green This month my term as chair of the Port of Newcastle comes to an end. It’s been a time of transformational change for the world’s biggest coal export port, with an ambitious growth and diversification plan ready to weigh anchor.  Despite this progress, it wasn’t all plain sailing, and nor will it…

Merry Australian Made Christmas to readers, suppliers to and clients of @AuManufacturing, and to Australian Manufacturing Forum Linkedin group members. As has become our custom, we are signing off for the year with a post acknowledging Tinsel Werks, the only Australian tinsel maker we're aware of, and offering a few thoughts on the year. Their…

By John Quiggin, The University of Queensland Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan for nuclear power in Australia has provoked a great deal of discussion and analysis – most of it critical. Experts point out the Coalition’s long-awaited modelling involves both highly optimistic costings and a massively lower demand for electricity than expected in official projections. In…

The federal government has announced a strategic examination of R&D, the latest in a series of inquiries into Australia's faltering innovation system. Here Mark Dodgson looks at why previous reviews have failed to have real impact. The history of reviews of research and innovation in Australia[1] follows a predictable and disheartening cycle. It starts with…

Australia is again reviewing Australia's innovation system – the Strategic Examination of R&D – and its apparent inability to contribute sufficiently to national economic development. Here Dr John Howard looks back at what we know from 25 years of such reviews. Australia’s ability to harness the full potential of its research and development (R&D) capacity…

Australia's manufacturing industry will have to continue to forge ahead alone as the government response remains light on details and lack clarity in helping the industry remain resilient. Here, Sandy Plunkett highlights the government's glaring gaps and lack of commitment to Australia's advanced manufacturing. The primary takeaway from the Federal government’s long-awaited response to last…

Not enough is known about the nature of Australian manufacturing and the issues it faces to plan for a future made in Australia. Here Julie Harrison argues for as comprehensive audit to help move us forward. There’s an axiom of business that says you can manage what you measure – when you know the parameters…

Dr Munib Karavdic is the founder and CEO of WAVE Design, which has a longstanding partnership with @AuManufacturing and has been involved in this title’s Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign for the last couple of years. He shares some observations on what sets the best innovators apart. There’s a quote from the legendary football…

By Paul Gover The one-time crown jewel of the Holden world has been transformed into the future of car-making in Australia. Walkinshaw Automotive is now a ‘remanufacturing’ powerhouse with direct links to six major carmakers – and more on the way. Its core business is right-hand drive conversions of full-sized pick-up trucks from the USA,…

After the second world war there was another bout of industry building. Here, in an extract from his Keynote Address at the 2024 Pearcey Foundation National Awards, Emeritus Professor Roy Green reflects on the creation of Australia's first computer, and what it can teach us about today's industry policy challenge. We are here tonight to…

We are forever hearing how SMEs are the “engine room” of the Australian economy, but not all SMEs are the same and not all their engines are revving. Sandy Plunkett considers “growth economy” companies, their importance, and what they need in this interview with the Australian Business Growth Fund’s Anthony Healy

By Sarah Cook National mandatory requirements are the only way Australia can reduce waste and create a circular economy for packaging. The current voluntary approach is not working. While the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) set National Packaging Targets for 2025 — including 50 per cent of average recycled content included in packaging — the data show…

Cloud migration is shaping the future of Australian manufacturing through greater efficiencies. But companies should plan before they leap says David Leen. Australian manufacturing has arrived at a fork in the road. At a time where the industry is struggling amid international competition, with China and America leading the way, the question of how Australian…

By Roy Green, University of Technology Sydney Productivity is the greatest structural problem in our economy, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers. He says there is “no higher priority for reform”. Announcing a A$900 million productivity fund to be shared with the states, the treasurer told a meeting of the Australian Business Economists on Wednesday Australia’s…

By Brent Balinski The most recent Economic Complexity Index rankings continue a downward slide for Australia, which has fallen from 93rd to 102nd.  The figures, compiled by the Growth Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School, were updated in September, though have not been noted in news coverage since. According to Australia’s profile in the Atlas…

By Peter Roberts The Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic has released its first State of Australian Quantum report which the government says reveals the depth and strength of our national quantum sector. According to a statement, the government has committed billions in funding for quantum and broader critical technologies since the launch of the…

By Nik Dennler, Western Sydney University Imagine a robot that can detect scents in the air and track down their sources as efficiently as a dog or a mouse. If realised, it could detect small wildfires in dense forests, find people buried in debris after an earthquake, or even hunt for truffles! Our research team…

By David Tuffley, Griffith University In a significant blow to Australia’s defence capabilities, the federal government is cancelling what would have been the nation’s largest-ever space project: a A$7 billion military satellite communications system. The decision was confirmed in a press statement today. It comes just 18 months after the Albanese government gave the green…

By Peter Roberts Shipbuilder Austal has again shown at its annual general meeting the folly of Australia's apparent unconcern should the company fall under foreign ownership. In September Korea's Hanwha gave up on a takeover of Austal, a deal that was waved through by Defence Minister Richard Marles as of no concern to the government.…

By Peter Roberts It has been a long while coming, but after 29 months in office the federal government has released a Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Plan. A recommendation of the Defence Strategic Review, the government has been meanwhile buying new weapons overseas and supporting local manufacture of some missiles and munitions. It has…

When the Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic revealed the latest budget estimates for R&D he claimed that ‘Gov't R&D (was) up'. A detailed analysis of the figures by Dr John Howard confirms that government investment in R&D as a proportion of GDP was, in fact, down, with worrying trends also apparent in higher…

By Ross Garnaut, The University of Melbourne Australia now has a government and parliament wanting timely transition to net zero. We have a government and parliament wanting to build Australia as the renewable energy superpower of the zero-carbon world economy. For the time being, we have favourable international settings for using our opportunity. The government…

By Jack Hetherington, University of Adelaide; Adam James Loch, University of Adelaide, and Pablo Juliano, CSIRO Every year, 7.6 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted in Australia. When we think about this, we might picture mouldy fruit, stale bread and overly full fridges. But in fact, almost half of this waste happens before…

The federal government has issued an Australian Innovation Statistics (AIS) dashboard showing, according to the headline on the government's media release, ‘Govt R&D up, overall R&D needs uplift'. The problem with this convenient analysis is that it belies the reality established in @AuManufacturing's editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – of a national innovation effort…

The renewable energy conversation often overlooks a crucial reality: the immense material and resource demands required to scale wind and solar technologies in a world already facing significant resource shortages and environmental challenges. To address these dual challenges, we must consider incorporating nuclear energy, argues Professor Michael Preuss.  Renewable energy sources like wind and solar…

By Peter Draper, University of Adelaide Finally, Australia’s rock lobster industry will be able to export to China again, following a deal struck on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos last week. It will take some weeks to finalise the paperwork, but Chinese diners can expect to eat our high-quality crustaceans as we…

The future of AI-augmented additive manufacturing holds enormous promise, believes Dr Ali Zolfagharian. He explains the concept and why there's a new group dedicated to it. Artificial intelligence (AI) has already made a significant impact across various sectors in automated manufacturing, but its by default integration into advanced manufacturing is about to reach new heights. With…

Many Australian manufacturers are wary of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, thinking they have little to offer, or are not yet ready for deployment. Here Lisa Balk looks at how AI can support manufacturers reach net zero. The global manufacturing sector stands at a critical crossroads. On one hand, it is an economic powerhouse that fuels…

By Dr Jens Goennemann The passage of time can be unkind. As with any year, you could easily dig up artefacts from 2014 that haven’t aged well. However, the Compete to Prosper report, prepared by McKinsey for the Business Council of Australia, has not aged badly at all. In my view, it remains a relevant document. Its…

By Michael Odei Erdiaw-Kwasie, Charles Darwin University; Matthew Abunyewah, Charles Darwin University, and Patrick Brandful Cobbinah, The University of Melbourne Pollution and waste, climate change and biodiversity loss are creating a triple planetary crisis. In response, UN Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen has called for waste to be redefined as a valuable resource instead…

Manufacturing success has never been more dependent on selecting and implementing the right technologies, writes Warren Zietsman. Three challenges are apparent for manufacturers. For an industry largely written off for decades, the recent comments by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the 2024 Bush Summit are a signal of intent in reviving the fortunes of both…

By Dennis B. Desmond, University of the Sunshine Coast In April, US lawmakers urged President Joe Biden to ban Chinese-built electric vehicles (EVs), labelling them an “existential threat to the American auto industry”. The proposed ban arose from concerns that Chinese car makers have an unfair advantage due to government financial support. Following a months-long…

As shown in @AuManuracturing News's Towards 3% R&D editorial series, Australia's innovation effort is tanking, with a lack of national policy co-ordination a key issue. Here Dr John H Howard, puts the case for a National Innovation Council. In an era where innovation drives economic growth and global competitiveness, Australia's fragmented approach to industrial strategy…

By Jay Rutovitz, University of Technology Sydney; Chris Briggs, University of Technology Sydney, and Elianor Gerrard, University of Technology Sydney The electricity workforce will need to double in five years to achieve Australia’s 2030 renewable energy target, our new report finds. More than 80% of these jobs will be in renewables. Jobs in energy storage…

By Peter Roberts Korea's Hanwha defence group has abandoned its takeover bid for Australia's most successful indigenous owned defence manufacturer Austal, according to media reports this morning. The takeover was ended in a letter to Austal from Hanwha Ocean CEO Hyek Woong Kwon titled ‘Termination of discussions with Austal'. The company blamed Austal's ‘insistence' that…

By Michael Anenburg, Australian National University Extinct volcanoes are hard to study – we never see them erupt. Using a unique experimental technique, we were able to recreate a certain type of extinct volcano in a lab, learning more about the magma these volcanoes produce. We found that some rare magma types are surprisingly efficient…

By Peter Roberts The award of a second contract in the United States for shipbuilder Austal to build facilities for constructing modules for US nuclear powered submarines should put paid to talk of allowing the Perth shipbuilder to be taken over by Korean interests. Austal USA has been awarded a $220 million (US$152 million) contract…

By Karen Raubenheimer, University of Wollongong It’s been 20 years since a paper in the journal Science showed the environmental accumulation of tiny plastic fragments and fibres. It named the particles “microplastics”. The paper opened an entire research field. Since then, more than 7,000 published studies have shown the prevalence of microplastics in the environment,…

The global steel market is cyclical and currently battling Chinese over-supply, and so too is cynicism about GFG Alliance's ability to transition the Whyalla steelworks to a green steel future. With renewed scepticism facing GFG, and part way through a green transition, GFG Alliance Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta remains confident of Whyalla's future – this…

Following @AuManufacturing's questioning of Australia's progress in developing critical minerals, Joe Kaderavek says now is the time to invest in mid-stream refining in Australia. Commodity prices move in deep cycles, causing mining boom and bust periods. Many critical minerals markets are suffering from over-supply following a phase of over-investment after nearly a decade of low…

On Friday Germany and Australia pledged $660 million to help create a green hydrogen export supply chain to Europe. At the same time UNSW Sydney researchers have released a first report exploring the feasibility of collaboration on exporting hydrogen and green metals – here is the executive summary of their study. The global steel industry…

Why do so many Australians oppose spending money to stimulate manufacturing? Why is it so prevalent to think ‘Australia is not good at making things'? And why do we launch $100 billion government programmes such as the NBN, but buy most if not all the technology from overseas? These are some of the questions that…

As we near our latest webinar Towards 3% R&D – Where to from here? (more information and sign up here) Dr John Howard asks whether Australia's capital markets are failing to support innovative companies. Dr Howard will speak at the webinar which follows our editorial series and e-book Towards 3% – turbocharging Australia's innovation effort.…

By Peter Roberts Both major political parties should hang their heads in shame for allowing Australia's value-adding manufacturing sector to sink to become such a small share of our economy. No single party is responsible for us being the least complex economy among advanced nations, however a special place is held by the Liberal-National coalition…

Green hydrogen produced by electrolysis remains expensive right now, but Hazer Group offers a promising alternative – it is transforming biogas waste into hydrogen and graphite. By Glenn Corrie. The hydrogen sector is at a crossroads, as the recent pullback by Fortescue underscored a critical truth: green hydrogen, while promising, is currently too expensive and…

By Peter Roberts Some years into Australia's newfound awareness of critical mineral supply chains and their importance to electrification and new technologies, have things changed all that much? Mostly, despite the hype of our being a battery or other materials ‘superpower', Australia still supplies the raw materials and others do the economic value adding in…

By Anna Malos, Monash University; Josh Solomonsz, Climateworks Centre, and Matthew Benetti, Climateworks Centre Australia’s push for net-zero emissions received a welcome boost on Thursday, with the release of an official report showing how Australia can seek to cut domestic emissions across each sector of the economy. The Climate Change Authority prepared the report, which…

Ahead of @AuManufacturing and BDO's webinar Towards 3% R&D – Where to from here? on 19 September (information and sign up here) Stephanie Moscovis looks at Australia's Trailblazer programme that is derisking research into decarbonising the economy. Research and development (R&D) is not just a process; it is the secret sauce of innovation, the driving…

By Sirjana Adhikari, Deakin University; Ellen Moon, Deakin University, and Wendy Timms, Deakin University As the climate changes, large parts of southern Australia are projected to get drier. Extreme rains are also becoming more common. For farmers, these changes pose big risks. What can we do to manage changes already locked in? One adaptation is…

By Chris Briggs, University of Technology Sydney As Australia’s electricity supply shifts to clean energy, a big challenge is looming. How do we “keep the lights on” as big coal plants close, and a far-flung network of wind and solar generators replaces them? This balancing act was outlined in the latest annual stocktake by the…

By Peter Roberts Well, it has finally come to this. Manufacturing in Australia really has sunk to a low ebb when this nation blessed with rich agriculture regions can barely make even the most humble of products. I confess to being an occasional eater of baked beans – they must have been something my dear…

By Peter Roberts Zinc bromine flow battery manufacturer Redflow has gone into voluntary administration after failing to secure new funds from investors. The company, which manufactures its Australian developed batteries in Thailand, has appointed Richard Hughes and David Orr from Deloitte as administrators. Redflow was one of the first to launch a commercial zinc flow…

Australia's Group of Eight major universities has issued a decadal roadmap to return the nation to a necessary 3% of GDP devoted to R&D. (Download @AuManufacturing's Towards 3% R&D e-book here) Here Dr Philip Chindamo proposes actions to boost business R&D. A thriving, innovative, and internationally competitive economy is essential to maintain our standard of…

By Peter Roberts We all know that Australia is scrambling to build up its missile defences, but it is somewhat galling to find the latest US$100 million purchase involves no local production whatsoever, and no technology transfer of any sort to Australians. Well that's not entirely true, they will teach us how to fire the…

@AuManufacturing's new report on its editorial series Towards 3% – turbocharging Australia's innovation efforts has hit a nerve with readers (you can download the free e-book below). Here @AuManufacturing sat down with Ryan Pollett and Nicola Purser from public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory BDO, to understand the importance of the series and report.…

By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Imagine if Australian cities became major producers of clean energy, rather than relying on far-flung solar and wind farms. Far fetched? Hardly. Our cities and towns are full of warehouses, commercial areas, shopping centres and factories. These types of buildings have one very important underutilised resource – large expanses of…

By Vitomir Kovanovic, University of South Australia Less than two years ago, the launch of ChatGPT started a generative AI frenzy. Some said the technology would trigger a fourth industrial revolution, completely reshaping the world as we know it. In March 2023, Goldman Sachs predicted 300 million jobs would be lost or degraded due to…

The obsession of universities with growth through international rankings that attract fee paying foreign students has let Australia fall behind in its ability to create new, breakthrough scientific knowledge. Here Dr John Howard argues that universities talk about ‘punching above our weight' in publication output, but they have generated only four breakthrough discoveries in the…

On Wednesday the Industry Capability Network released a study by University of Sydney's Phillip Toner and UTS Emeritus Professor Roy Green which recommended it should be mandatory for project proponents to work with the service which connects businesses to opportunities. Here @AuManufacturing talked to Professor Roy Green. @AuManufacturing: The ICN has been in operation for…

The clean Energy Finance Corporation's work of co-investing alongside private sector funds has never been more important than in 2024. Here in his investment update for 2023-24 CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth writes of a year of investment opportunities and constraints, of emissions progress and the increasingly personal impacts of climate change. As a specialist investor…

By Professor Akbar Rhamdhani You might not know it, but critical minerals are the hidden engine powering our daily lives. They drive the functionality of our electronics, medical devices and renewable energy systems. Without them, our world would grind to a standstill and the technology we rely on every day, such as smartphones and laptops,…

The Managing Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Jens Goennemann is on an extended 4WD trek around Australia. He posted this report on the Australian Made products he relies on from the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia. Often, I hear that Australia does not make anything anymore. I heard this misnomer again recently…

Australia's newly minted Assistant Minister for a Future Made in Australia Tim Ayres believes opportunities such as the revitalisation of manufacturing come around rarely. Today is one of those opportunities he argues in this excerpt from his address to the National Manufacturing Summit. As the Prime Minister said back in April – we need to…

By Peter Roberts Much of Australia's modesty sized steel sector was born through the adversity of distance from established suppliers and the threat Japan posed to Australia during WW2. Since then there has been some development of electric arc furnaces utilising scrap as a feedstock, but otherwise Japan, then Korea and China have swamped Australian…

By Peter Roberts Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has topped off a national tour of green energy projects across the country with the inauguration of a community battery in Bondi, New South Wales. Flanked by CEOs Marc England of Ausgrid, Frank Calabria of Origin and Mark Collett of Energy Australia he revealed that…

The ambitious Future Made in Australia plan could get off to a healthy start if we focused on water security first. By Kristi McLachlan. Ramping up Australian manufacturing is much-needed blue-sky thinking, but how we manage water today and into the future needs to be part of that discussion. The average person would be stunned…

When the federal government came to office it promised a timetable for announcing which competing group of businesses and research institutions would be funded to perform R&D under the hugely successful Cooperative Research Centres scheme. Bids cost big dollars to put together, says Dr Tony Peacock, with business now dismayed that the latest deadline for…

By Peter Roberts Are we witnessing daily the eclipse of the federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) and its minister Ed Husic? I ask this question for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the shuffle of the federal ministry which overlooked Husic while promoting the Assistant Minister for Manufacturing,…

By Peter Roberts Apparently we learned nothing from the pandemic shortages of critical medical supplies such as surgical gloves and hospital masks. For all the talk about building sovereign local manufacturing sources of medical necessities, Australia is faced with a similar situation of shortage only a few years later, but this time over IV fluids.…

By Peter Roberts That federal government's economic adviser the Productivity Commission has a new spring in its step and new targets of its quest for an economically pure Australia – defence procurement policies and local content rules more generally, especially those applied by the states. The PC's 50th Trade and Assistance Review (TAR) just released…

By Peter Roberts The Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic has made an impassioned commitment to words all too often forgotten in recent years – value adding and fostering Australian ingenuity. In a speech to the Australian Space Forum Husic said a Future Made in Australia would be defined by resilience, prosperity, and unwavering…

By Ian Lowe, Griffith University and Kylie Walker, Australian National University Australia’s clean energy transition is already underway, driven by solar, wind, batteries and new transmission lines. But what about nuclear? Opposition leader Peter Dutton last month committed to building nuclear reactors on the site of retired coal plants – triggering intense debate over whether…

Australia's only watchmaker Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker has completed a series of watches to demonstrate the company's capabilities. Here Josh Hacko looks back at a big 18 months for the small company. I love giving a bit of a backstory, and glimpse behind the curtain into our projects. The NH55 project, which you can see in…

By Peter Newman, Curtin University The extent to which renewables should dominate Australia’s energy grids is a major issue in science and politics. Solar and wind are clearly now the cheapest form of electricity. But limits to these technologies can undermine the case for a renewables-only electricity mix. The challenges posed by solar and wind…

In this, the third part of a series about Coalition plans for nuclear power in Australia, Peter Farley asks the question – How would we establish a nuclear power industry? It is often claimed that many countries are going nuclear and if Australia wants to be a ‘Developed Country' we should have nuclear power. If…

By Peter Roberts Just as the domestic electricity grid is making quick progress towards decarbonisation, so too are industrial processes such as steelmaking. Australia's two primary steelmakers have taken different courses in moving towards lower carbon iron and steels. The GFG Alliance at Whyalla is moving from reliance on blast furnace technology towards a combination…

Australia has clear defence industry priorities including developing a local drone manufacturing sector. Here Dr Peter Layton examines Defence's recent drone purchases, and asks why then, do we buy overseas made drones and not the best value or most advanced ones at that? In late February the Minister for Defence Industry launched the Defence Industry…

South Australia is set to be 100 percent net renewable power by 2027 – a remarkable world first based only on solar PV and wind. Giles Parkinson explains the milestone's importance. When the federal and state governments were deciding on a location to announce a funding deal that will underwrite South Australia’s final leap to…

By Peter Roberts This week, did we see an example of the federal government's new policies to link innovation more directly and speedily to eventual purchase? Or was this the last gasp of Defence's traditional glacial approach to procurement. These questions loom large in Monday's announcement that the government would invest over $100 million to…

In this, the second in an occasional series about Peter Dutton's Coalition plans for nuclear power in Australia, Peter Farley finds the earliest conventional nuclear power could be on online in Australia would be 2048-49. Read the first article on reliability here. It has been said that we could have nuclear power plants running in…

With the federal government and opposition vowing to reduce migration numbers in recent weeks, Australia’s ongoing skills shortages is likely to force businesses to increasingly seek overseas suppliers and put another nail in the coffin for local manufacturing, according to Scott Rawson.  A reduction in the number of skilled migrants will place added pressure on…

By Xavier Orr After nearly 13 years with Advanced Navigation, I have made the difficult decision to retire as Co-CEO. While it comes with a heavy heart, I will be taking time off to focus on a family health matter. In 2012, Chris Shaw and I started the company from a garage in Subiaco, Western…

By Asma Aziz, Edith Cowan University Keeping the lights on in Australia is a complex task. Enough capacity must be ensured everywhere in the country, at every moment. Surplus in one location won’t solve shortages in another, unless we have the transmission infrastructure to transmit electricity between them. The transmission network largely consists of high-voltage…

In this, the first in an occasional series about nuclear power in Australia, Peter Farley says the claim of nuclear reliability is vastly overstated. “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong,” – Albert Einstein. As a student in the late 60’s I watched a training film…

The medtech sector needs further investment in manufacturing to protect against further potential global shocks as medical supply chains in Australia have not recovered fully from the COVID-19 pandemic which caused havoc with patient care. By Dr Jack Richards.  In the face of threats like pandemics and shifting economic and geopolitical conditions, it’s imperative that…

Australian Plant Proteins' voluntary administration highlights the lack of forward thinking by government, says Food Frontier CEO Dr Simon Eassom. In a regional area where employment and value-added industries are essential, it’s disappointing that a significant manufacturing plant has announced its potential closure after eight years of operations. Horsham based Australian Plant Proteins (APP) went…

By Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Opposition leader Peter Dutton might have been hoping for an endorsement from economists for his plan to take Australian nuclear. He shouldn’t expect one from The Economist. The Economist is a British weekly news magazine that has reported on economic thinking and served as…

While issues such as quantum computing attract political action, Australia is losing the sovereign ability to manufacture even basic products such as plastics and downstream products such as paint. According to Shane West, the closure of plastic raw material production by Qenos requires government intervention. How to respond to the loss of Qenos – Australia…

Manufacturing has been lost in Australia and we are turning our attention to building it anew. We have to look away from the past, to new ways of manufacturing and a digital-first mentality and automation. By Grant Wild. The recent deliverables in the Federal budget have made me think hard about what we really need…

By Dr John Howard The Acton Institute for Policy Research and Innovation's latest study examines the institutional settings for research systems in Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, South Korea, the UK, and the USA, focusing on their interaction with innovation ecosystems and with the broader innovation ecosystem. The report finds that Australia's research system is heavily…

After decades of invaluable work encouraging more than 1.5 million young Australians to take up STEM careers, the Re-Engineering Australia Foundation has been unable to secure ongoing funds from government or industry and will close. This is the full text of the high achieving charity's shock announcement, by Dr Michael Myers. With a heavy heart,…

By Ty Christopher, University of Wollongong and Michelle Voyer, University of Wollongong On the weekend, an area 20km off the Illawarra coast south of Sydney became Australia’s fourth offshore wind energy zone. It’s the most controversial zone to date, with consultation attracting a record 14,211 submissions – of which 65% were opposed. The zone’s declaration…

The Australian government used to publish a Business R&D Investment Scorecard, providing insight into how companies are investing in their future. Here John H Howard, Victor Pantano and Cameron Begley produce their own scorecard – which suggests fewer Australian companies are bothering with R&D. R&D scorecards are vital tools for policymakers. They provide essential data…

By Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra Opposition leader Peter Dutton has announced seven sites for reactors, unveiling his long-awaited and highly-controversial policy for nuclear power with the claim it could start operating from the 2030s. The locations are the sites of former or current coal plants. They have the technical attributes needed for a nuclear…

The Newcastle and Hunter regions of New South Wales have long been one of Australia's most significant industrial heartlands. Here Roy Green lays out how the region can meet the challenges of climate change and transform its industrial structure. Everyone in Australia has a stake in the successful transformation of Newcastle and the coal rich…

The Future Made in Australia is great if you are in one of the chosen new high growth sectors that are its focus. But what of existing, centuries old manufacturing value chains assailed by cheap online retailing? By Allyn Beard. Cheap, imported and mass-produced goods are seemingly taking over Australia, with the likes of online…

By Peter Roberts The federal government has secured ‘more gas at reasonable prices' to be made available for Australia’s east coast gas users through a new supply deal with Walloons, part of Shell, according to the government. An additional 40 petajoules will be made available for the domestic market for gas power generation between now…

By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University CSIRO’s latest annual GenCost update, released last month, was billed as Australia’s “most comprehensive electricity generation cost report”. GenCost has proven to be highly controversial. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton previously levelled robust criticism at the report, specifically the high costs attributed to building nuclear power in Australia, and called for…

By Hanqin Tian, Boston Coll ege; Eric Davidson, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Pep Canadell, CSIRO, and Rona Louise Thompson, Norwegian Institute for Air Research Food’s role in climate change has emerged as one of the defining challenges of our time. The journey of a steak, fruit or salad from the vast expanses of agricultural lands…

By Peter Roberts You really would pull your hair out if you stopped to think about the supermarket duopoly's commitment to Australian industry – you know the growers and industry manned by its customers – Australians. The first image (pictured) last night on the Woolworths Group website is captioned – Growing Together for 36 Years…

By Dylan McConnell, UNSW Sydney In Australia’s electricity system, more and more energy from sunlight and wind is being “spilled” – or not converted to electricity. In the last year, the amount of renewable energy spilled was roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of 750,000 typical households, or three months of consumption for the state…

Channel Nine media has revealed that a group of 70 economists from the nation's most important universities support the recently announced Future Made in Australia policy. The exclusive story by well respected journalist Shane Wright in the SMH newspaper also puts a rocket up the Productivity Commission which has continued its long standing antipathy to…

Australian Manufacturing Forum member Allen Roberts is incensed that the federal government is comfortable with foreign takeover of our most important sovereign defence manufacturer, shipbuilder Austal, as is @AuManufacturing. Tasked in the Forum with detailing his concerns, minus expletives, Allen reports. Leaving out the expletives, let’s focus on a few obvious strategic points. The government…

@AuManufacturing's series Towards 3% R&D has been noticed from Canberra to business. Here, Dario Valenza charts some of the impediments to manufacturing and asks whether there is a path ahead, without sacrificing the things we value about Australia. Let’s start by acknowledging that we have a high cost base in Australia because of geography, regulation,…

By Peter Roberts Perth international shipbuilder Austal has been awarded a $779 million (US$516 million) US Navy contract modification for the construction of the lead ship of the T-AGOS (ocean surveillance) programme, T-AGOS 25. The company, the largest Australian owned and controlled prime defence contractor, said the contract modification exercised an option for ordering long…

Manufacturing for Australia’s self-sufficiency is a must. Here Dr Mobin Nomvar Founder & MD of Scimita Ventures, examines how we can build on innovation to scale as a nation. In recent years, major conflicts have broken out in Ukraine, a major wheat producer, which together with attacks on ships passing through the Suez Canal and…

@AuManufacturing’s social media discussion and networking group, the Australian Manufacturing Forum on Linkedin, has passed an important membership milestone. The Forum, Australia’s largest professional social media group of Australian manufacturers, last night saw the admission of new members, bringing membership to 15,000. New members in past days range from production team members to technical staff…

By Sanjoy Paul, University of Technology Sydney and Priyabrata Chowdhury, RMIT University The shift towards net zero emissions and greater international competition have created new opportunities for clean energy industries – poised to shape the global economy in the coming decades. To harness these opportunities, the government has developed a long-term strategic initiative called the…

By Marina Yue Zhang, University of Technology Sydney; David Gann, University of Oxford, and Mark Dodgson, The University of Queensland Globalisation is on shaky ground. As China rises, the United States and its allies are moving to reduce their reliance on the world’s factory. The rivalry between the US and China is wide-ranging, from competition…

By Peter Roberts Relations between workers and management at submarine builder ASC have sunk even lower with members of the trade unions on the site unanimously issuing a vote of no confidence in the CEO’s leadership. Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) SA Assistant State Secretary Stuart Gordon said around 300 members across the AMWU, AWU…

This month marks two years of manufacturing for Philip Goodman, who says his company has so far managed to turn about 300,000 kilograms of post-industrial plastic into new permeable pavers. The Director of Truegrid Australia came to manufacturing after a career as developer and builder, particularly of over-50s lifestyle resorts.  Goodman says he saw Truegrid…

The details of Para Mobility’s history are not totally clear. The assistive technology company began in 1983, and CEO Peter Cleaves says it’s had various different names and about six different owners during the time. What seems clearer is that it began with and continues to operate based on needs. “Like most AT businesses in…

By Kylie Turner, Climateworks Centre and Luke Brown, Climateworks Centre In the budget last week, the government was keen to talk about its efforts to turn Australia into a renewable superpower under the umbrella of the Future Made in Australia policies. Future Made is a framework that sets out how to target green subsidies to…

By Peter Roberts If @AuManufacturing's editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – has taught us anything, it is not the national myth of plucky Australians being an inventive people battling to commercialise their ideas. Towards 3% has taught us that unlike leading nations, Australia doesn't have a supportive innovation ecosystem…

By Ian Lowe, Griffith University For decades, Australia has exported uranium – but not used it, other than in the Lucas Heights research reactor. But change is coming. We now face a rapidly deepening commitment to the nuclear industry, through nuclear submarines (bipartisan support) or nuclear reactors (Coalition support). The Albanese government was quick to accept…

Today we conclude our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – in which @AuManufacturing has exposed the issues eroding Australian R&D. In this edited excerpt Dr John Howard proposes A National Business R&D Strategy and Action Plan. Download the full paper at the foot of this article. The structure of…

By Kylie Walker, Australian National University This year’s federal budget is making up for decades of lost time – both in our clean energy transition and in betting on new technological breakthroughs. The Future Made in Australia Act holds tantalising potential for building Australian science, research and development. The aim is to turn Australia into…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Elliot Duff identifies the issue as a lack of capability in diffusing knowledge through the economy to its grass roots. Knowledge Diffusion in Australia While doubling R&D spending to 3% will help turbo-charge the Australian innovation system, it is essential…

Today in the closing days of our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Professor Danny Samson looks at picking winners in R&D. His conclusion – no guarantees but a structured approach can help. We all pick winners: so let’s do it well! From governments and big businesses to startup…

A loss of sovereign control of industry is a key issue raised in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Here, Allen Roberts examines innovation in the critical food manufacturing sector. The recent declaration of ‘A Future Made in Australia' by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has put the…

By Peter Roberts If a plethora of ambitious programmes and many, many billions of dollars are all that it takes to reverse manufacturing's long term slide, then Jim Chalmers budget 2024 delivered tonight has made a welcome start on setting the $124 billion sector up for a new period of expansion. While headlines were the…

By Peter Roberts The 2024 budget has responded to the issues being raised by @AuManufacturing's one-month long series of articles around the theme Towards 3% R&D – turbocharging Australia's innovation efforts. Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a ‘strategic examination of Australian research and development' as part of the Future Made in Australia package of measures. According…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy explains how the government has built new structures to link defence innovation with commercial outcomes, building the defence industrial base in the process. A strong and sovereign innovation, science and technology sector is critical to…

As we come towards the end of our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Professor Cori Stewart Founder and CEO ARM Hub explains the importance of commercialising hubs in turning research into economic outcomes. For the past two decades the capability generated by Australian R&D funding and the capability…

As we come towards the conclusion of our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – we turn to the critical issue of innovation in the use of renewables for industrial process heat. Dr Mahesh Venkataraman of thermal energy storage company 1414 Degrees outlines the way forward. The decarbonisation of process…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Dr Matthew Young looks at the Australian government's aim of close to doubling R&D spending to the equivalent of 3% of GDP, and concludes it might be better to set a better goal. Advocating for an increase in Australia’s national…

By Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s uses would change over time, as energy efficiency improved, renewables were firmed and emissions were…

A National Business Research and Development Strategy and Action Plan is the logical conclusion of our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort. In this edited excerpt, Dr John Howard lays out the elements of the strategy. The full paper can be downloaded below. Australian business investment in R&D collapsed during…

Innovation hubs that allow companies to engage with researchers and test their systems on the latest equipment are seen as part of the answer to Australia's faltering innovation system. Here, in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Philipp Dautel of one such hub the Factory of the Future…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Daniel Splatt and Michelle Tan highlight the benefits of a patent box system, much advocated but missing from our innovation ecosystem. The World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index has revealed a steady decline in Australia’s knowledge, technology, and creative…

Our editorial series Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – requires a trained and inspired workforce. But how to achieve that? By Michael Edwards of Boeing Research and Technology. Enhancing performance, safety and efficiency of Boeing's products and services are at the forefront of Boeing’s innovation teams’ minds when developing technological advancements for…

As we have been publishing our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – new statistics have emerged that show that even higher education research, until now a national strongpoint, is faltering. Professor Roy Green details the biggest decline ever recorded in higher education research. The newly released Australian Bureau of…

Biofuels are one of Australia's biggest industrial and environmental opportunities. Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Geoff Bell looks at what is needed to make promise a reality. Australia, with its extensive demand for air travel and rich natural resources like biomass, solar and wind, is…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – we look at the evidence from innovation research. Professor Danny Samson outlines the steps needed to turn R&D into business success. Companies in Australia have a terrific opportunity to grow through innovation, given our access to global markets and the…

Are we actually asking the question in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort. Here Allen Roberts looks behind the issue at the Australian way of getting things done, and whether that, itself, needs reform. As we seek to move towards 3% of GDP as a measure of the R&D…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Saeid Nahavandi looks at the role robotic and autonomous systems can play in defence innovation and operations. In line with the complexities of modern warfare, the integration of advanced robotic and autonomous systems (RASs), artificial intelligence (AI), and human-machine collaborative…

By Peter Roberts Defence Minister Richard Marles is comfortable with the possibility of Australia's most successful locally owned defence manufacturer, Austal, falling to overseas ownership. I, for one, am not. In April Korean defence group Hanwha bid to buy Austal, emerging into the open after months of speculation that the company was a takeover target.…

Today our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – turns to successful overseas models boosting innovation such as the US SBIR model. By Jefferson Harcourt. Research and Development (R&D) is essential in driving economic growth and maintaining a competitive advantage, and in Australia there's a pressing need to enhance R&D…

Today our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – turns to the critical importance of leadership from governments and business leaders in reversing the innovation slump. By David Martin of Ai Group. Leaders have the responsibility to shape the future of their firms by identifying opportunities and strategically aligning the…

@AuManufacturing turns today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – to one of the bright sparks in the innovation scene – the development of a research-based space industry. By Xavier Orr. Australia’s space sector has skyrocketed in the past two decades. As of 2008, Australia was the only…

By Andrew Blakers, Australian National University As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and cannot cope with more wind and solar farms and transmission lines. So how much land is needed to fully decarbonise energy…

Faltering business expenditure on R&D is a major factor in Australia's poor innovation performance. Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Dr John Howard identifies businesses' failings. This is an edited excerpt (full paper link below). From 1981 to 1995, Australian businesses made steady progress in lifting…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Katherine Woodthorpe looks at the potential of innovation in low emission products for export. She argues investing in innovation and STEM skills has economic returns. In the fight against climate change, Australia and the world are at a crossroads. The…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – we turn to the main support mechanism available for innovation – the R&D Tax Incentive. By Kris Gale. In Minister Husic’s 3% R&D drive to survive, one constant refrain in the Government’s innovation support story is the need to make…

By Kathryn Willis, CSIRO; Britta Denise Hardesty, CSIRO; Katie Conlon, Ph.D., Portland State University, and Win Cowger, University of California, Riverside In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – Serena Ross contrasts innovation to be new to the world, and continuous improvement – the lifeblood of her company, Circuitwise Electronics. Australia’s innovation effort can be improved by a greater focus on ‘ordinary' innovation. In contrast to deep-tech or R&D-focused…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – we turn to the role of national industry policy. Here Roy Green points to innovation and the success of a Future Made in Australia as intertwined. While lacking detail at this stage, the significance of Prime Minister Albanese’s Future Made…

With business and direct government spending on R&D falling, and only university research rising, our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia's Innovation Effort – turns to collaboration between industry and public sector researchers. By Dr Tony Peacock. If Australia is to turbocharge our R&D to reach 3% of GDP, businesses will have…

By Peter Roberts The federal government has accelerated the roll out of renewable power generation and storage with the country's biggest ever tender. But despite Canberra's plans for a Future Made in Australia, there was no mention of a role for local industry in the announcement made this morning. The Federal and NSW climate change…

By Peter Roberts Mining company Iluka Resources has awarded long lead procurement packages for key equipment for the company's planned rare earths refinery at its Eneabba zircon mine in Western Australia – the first refinery for rare earths in Australia for the minerals used in high technology products. The company is procuring the roasting kiln,…

By Peter Roberts So whether or not Australia will actually have a Future Made in Australia as wished for by the Albanese government comes down to what it has always come down to – a matter of Ideology. The sides of the debate are clear. Ranged against are the usual suspects – economically regressive media…

Sponsored article By Stephane Marouani, Country Manager ANZ at MathWorks As countries worldwide begin to establish AI regulations, manufacturing engineers designing AI-enabled systems must meet these newly introduced specifications and standards. On October 30, the United States White House issued an executive order on AI regulation, highlighting the importance of robust Verification and Validation (V&V)…

By Katie Howe Last week Prime Minister Albanese cheerfully welcomed the Chinese government’s removal of import duties on Australian wine. Following numerous government-to-government talks held in Canberra and Beijing over recent months, it was seen as a positive step in a new era of Australia-China relations. For winemakers, it was merely a small win on…

By Peter Roberts @AuManufacturing's editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – turbocharging our national innovation effort which is now seeking your input – has been made more relevant with the announcement by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of a Future Made in Australia Act. Australia's manufacturing future lies in technology and skills based products, as well…

The announcement by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of a Future Made in Australia Act has brought a chorus of negativism as well as support and advice from industry. Samantha Donovan interviewed industry policy leader Emeritus Professor Roy Green of UTS Sydney on ABC radio – his advice is to better coordinate policy, focus on…

On Thursday in a speech in Brisbane Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed he would put to Parliament a bill for a Future Made in Australia Act which would respond to increasing global competition through more activist industry policy. Here is an edited transcript of his speech. We need to be clear-eyed about the economic realities…

By Weihuan Zhou, UNSW Sydney and James Laurenceson, University of Technology Sydney China’s Ministry of Commerce has finally ended its tariffs on Australian wine, which had been imposed for more than three years at rates as high as 218.4%. The measures have had a catastrophic impact on Australia’s wine exports. In 2019, Australia sold A$1.24…

Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% – turbocharging our national innovation effort – innovation policy analyst Dr John Howard shines light on why Australian R&D is going backwards. In this, the second part of a two-part series, Dr Howard discusses the reasons behind the fall in R&D spending, pointing the finger at a…

Launching our new editorial series – Towards 3% – turbocharging our national innovation effort – innovation policy analyst Dr John Howard looks behind the statistics to reveal that Australia's national R&D effort has slumped since 2009. In this edited excerpt, the first part of a two-part series, Dr Howard shows Australia is falling further behind.…

By Simon Wright, Charles Sturt University Connecting cheap, clean energy from renewables comes with a hidden cost and challenge: building 5,000 kilometres of new transmission lines this decade, and another 5,000km after that. This sounds like a lot, but 5,000km is only around 10% of the existing grid network, and unlocks more than 32 gigawatts…

By Peter Roberts Building products group Brickworks has announced the retirement of its long serving Managing Director Lindsay Partridge (pictured). Partridge, who is to be replaced by COO Mark Ellenor, is one of the country's best respected and most successful manufacturing leaders. A ceramic engineer by training, he worked his way to the top job…

By Peter Roberts Queensland's ARM Hub is supporting a local start-up to build a smart lithium battery for Australian homes, at the same time demonstrating its unusual-for-Australia innovation model. The batteries have a special casing that enables them to be repaired remotely, and the company, Vaulta, is scaling their pilot assembly plant at the ARM…

By Josh Lepawsky, Memorial University of Newfoundland Semiconductors are the basic building blocks of microchips. These technological marvels are in everything from lightbulbs and toothbrushes to cars, trains and planes, not to mention the vast array of electronics that have become integral to many people’s daily lives. The 21st century chip manufacturing industry has been…

By Vigya Sharma, The University of Queensland and Julia Loginova, The University of Queensland Shifting Australia’s electricity sector to low-carbon technologies and closing coal plants is vital to tackling climate change. But such transitions are easier said than done. People and economies are often deeply connected to the coal industry. Coal plants have often been…

By Peter Roberts The decision that BAE Systems Australia and ASC Pty Ltd are to build SSN‑AUKUS submarines in Adelaide promises to return government-owned ASC closer to the role originally intended when then defence minister Kim Beazley established the ASC to build the Collins Class submarine. The company, which will now also sustain Virginia and…

The ability of electric powered machines to do the job – even towing a caravan – has been demonstrated with Fortescue’s first operational electric excavator reaching one million tonnes of ore moved. Over the past three months, the excavator had been running at partial capacity while the Cloudbreak mine site team familiarised themselves with the…

By Andreas Helwig, University of Southern Queensland Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. But while the steam engine has been superseded by internal combustion engines and now electric motors, the modern world still…

By Charlie Huang, RMIT University Australia’s largest export, iron ore, has long been a powerhouse of economic growth. Over the past two decades, its contribution to our national income has surged from just A$8 billion in 2005 to over A$124 billion today. But the Australian iron ore industry faces a major challenge as its biggest…

By Adam Gilmour There is a space treaty being proposed in Parliament right now that sounds innocuous, but has the potential of being the biggest speed-bump/handbrake or ‘own goal’ for the Australian space industry. Tabled in Parliament on 28 February, the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) between Australia and the United States essentially allows US rockets…

The federal government's Research and Development (R&D) tax incentive may have highly restrictive rules and definitions which cut the number of companies eligible for assistance, but for early stage and start up companies it can be a godsend. Available to companies turning over less than $20 million – itself a bone of contention with innovative…

By Conrad Sanderson, CSIRO As the world rushes to make use of the latest wave of AI technologies, one piece of high-tech hardware has become a surprisingly hot commodity: the graphics processing unit, or GPU. A top-of-the-line GPU can sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and leading manufacturer NVIDIA has seen its market valuation…

By Peter Roberts Those questioning the effectiveness of the federal government's $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund need to look no further than the success of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation initiative. But don't expect rapid results – the CEFC took a decade to pick up steam and only now is showing the power of catalytic…

By Vikki McLeod, Queensland University of Technology and Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology Rooftop solar is Australia’s cheapest source of electricity. The consumer can get electricity from rooftop solar at less than a fifth of the average cost per kwh of buying it from a retailer. Unsurprisingly, rooftop solar output is growing fast. In…

A study just released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency of gender pay gaps in companies found that women in the workforce are still badly treated, in fact very badly treated. The median gender pay gap in 5,000 companies studied on a base salary measure was found to be 14.5 per cent, while on a…

By Peter Roberts Australia has a modest R&D tax incentive programme which rewards innovative young companies with a tax refund based on their R&D spending. But those same small companies face a refund cliff should they grow too big – the scheme returns tax on the basis of R&D performed only up to a company…

By Peter Roberts Much has been written about the Australian universities accord – final report from scientist and engineer Mary O'Kane (pictured). But from an industry innovation point of view her panel's recommendations fall short of what is needed to kickstart Australia's fading innovation – and I mean business innovation – performance. National R&D has…

By Peter Roberts BHP might just be getting serious about fully exploiting its ability to refine and export copper on a large scale from its South Australian copper mines – however the company has considered major expansions previously and baulked at the cost. In 2012 BHP halted plans for a $30 billion expansion of its…

The Assistant Minister for defence Matt Thistlethwaite has spruiked the government's response to the Defence Strategic Review in the field of defence innovation, including through joint work with AUKUS partners the US and the UK. The DSR found that more support is needed for innovation, faster acquisition and better links between Defence and industry to…

By Peter Roberts It is amazing what a little cold hard cash – an extra $11 billion bringing the total to $38 billion over 10 years to be exact – can do. The federal government has tried to work wonders by piling the cash into the defence budget to achieve three of what seemed like…

By Mohan Yellishetty, Monash University Australia’s nickel industry has been granted access to billions of dollars in federal funding as well as relief from royalty payments after a collapse in the global price of nickel that threatens thousands of jobs. On Thursday BHP wrote down the value of its West Australian nickel division Nickel West…

A slump in prices for the critical mineral nickel – used in battery manufacture – has brought action from the federal and Western Australian governments. In the past few days federal Resources Minister Madeleine King placed nickel on the Critical Minerals List, giving nickel companies opportunity to access billions of dollars in Commonwealth funding. And…

By Peter Roberts The Queensland government is getting back in the venture capital game and directly investing in young – and inherently risky – businesses. State owned VCs have been on the nose since the failure of the Victorian Economic Development Corporation and subsequent abolition in 1993, its demise as much a result of the…

By Peter Roberts Australian-born, US based automotive wheel manufacturer Carbon Revolution has announced preliminary sales for the fiscal second-quarter ending December 2023 of a record US$14.8 million, exceeding previously announced guidance for the quarter of US$14.0M-US$14.5M. For the year ended December 31, 2023, revenue increased 42 percent to US$40.3 million. CEO of Carbon Revolution Jake…

By Anya Phelan, Griffith University After the memorable collapse of Australia’s largest soft plastic recycling program REDcycle in late 2022, a new scheme is emerging. It’s remarkably similar, albeit on a much smaller scale. The trial underway in 12 Melbourne supermarkets intends, once again, to provide customers with an in-store option for recycling “scrunchable” food…

Not content with Whyalla's emergence as a green steel production hub, a second South Australian city – Port Pirie – has joined the race to become a green metals hub based on the state's huge reserves of magnetite ore. While haematite from the Pilbara has been the source of most of Australia's iron ore exports,…

By Peter Roberts Until now the talk in defence circles has been about the possibility that fewer than the planned nine Hunter class frigates might be built at a new shipyard at Osborne in Adelaide (pictured). This is something that has kept Adelaide manufacturers, already reeling from Australia's recent on-again, off again submarine policies, awake…

By Andrew Gunn, Monash University and Christian Jakob, Monash University The bush is full up – no room for more renewables, according to Nationals leader David Littleproud. Instead, renewables should be restricted to large solar arrays on commercial buildings in the cities. The country-focused minor party presumably hopes to capitalise on rural scepticism of large scale…

Sponsored  As seen through recent arguments over industry policy and various reports over the years – such as the results of a Parliamentary inquiry released in late-November – there are recommendations aplenty as to where and how local manufacturing can flourish. It’s easy enough to find comments about where Australia shouldn’t try to compete. And…

By Peter Roberts Anyone looking for the federal government to put emissions-producing exports behind it and focus on zero emissions exports of green hydrogen and ammonia would be disappointed at a major speech just delivered by Resources Minister Madeline King to Japanese industry leaders at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo. In a long speech King…

By Thomas Longden, Western Sydney University How long does it take to build a solar or wind farm? It’s a simple question with wide implications. To reach our ambitious 82% renewable energy target by 2030, we have to build many new projects – and start them soon. In 2022, renewables hit a new high of 36%…

Many industrial leaders and companies are active and generous in the charity space, but few are prepared to go as far as Grant Tinney, Founder, Chairman and CTO at STÄRKE Advanced Manufacturing Group. Tinney took to social media to celebrate one of his boldest achievements – helping create and participating in the 11th annual Marilyn…

By Lucy Richardson, Monash University and Ella Healy, Monash University A paradox lies at the heart of Australian public opinion about climate change. While there is clear general support for substantial government action to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, there is also strong concern about the local impacts of new renewable energy infrastructure. The…

By Timothy Duignan, Griffith University The Australian government is going all in on quantum computing. After investing more than $100 million on “quantum technology” in 2021, it is now reportedly considering spending up to $200 million on purchasing a “quantum computer” from a US company. Is this a sensible decision? You might think so, if…

By Peter Roberts For those hesitating on embarking on a company improvement process hesitate no longer – Perth mining equipment manufacturer Austin Engineering has shown the massive benefits available from reorganising and streamlining operations and investing in new machinery and manufacturing processes. The company, which manufactures large dump truck bodies for the mining sector and…

By Peter Roberts The 1980s and 1990s were optimistic times for electronics manufacturing in Australia, with changing technologies allowing new companies to establish such as Entech Electronics in Adelaide, GPC Electronics in western Sydney and IntelliDesign in Brisbane. Like all manufacturing there have been ups and a lot of downs since then but the sector,…

By Toby Walsh, UNSW Sydney Today, the federal Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic revealed an interim response from the Australian government on the safe and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). The public, especially the Australian public, have real concerns about AI. And it’s appropriate that they should. AI is a powerful technology…

By Peter Roberts War brings no good to anyone but a few military contractors which boom during times of rising tensions – none more so than drone detection and countermeasure manufacturer DroneShield. To say that the company is in the right place at the right time to prosper from technological change is a massive understatement…

By Stephane Marouani As the adoption of AI grows across countless industries, it continues to enable impactful progress and revolutionise various aspects of technology and human interaction. Forrester predicts that Enterprise AI initiatives will boost productivity and creative problem-solving by 50 per cent in 2024. AI will impact the work of engineers and educators alike, saving…

By Brent Balinski It is the time of year when many of us are reopening, if we aren’t already open for business. Being open for business can have different meanings for different people, as prime minister Anthony Albanese’s description of the National Reconstruction Fund on Monday morning showed. The independent National Reconstruction Fund Corporation is…

By Peter Roberts Deepening technological involvement between the three AUKUS partner nations is a key aim of the AUKUS pact with joint work between Australia and the United States escalating over summer. Work is underway between the two nations on at least three areas – submarine development, hypersonics and the development of autonomous vehicle systems…

By Dylan McConnell, UNSW Sydney Australia’s coal power stations will all close in 2038 – five years earlier than previously expected – and variable renewable energy capacity will need to triple by 2030 and increase sevenfold by 2050. These are two key findings in the latest roadmap for Australia’s largest grid and electricity market, the…

Two-thirds of students who completed a vocational qualification at certificate I or above had an improved employment outcome post-training, up 2.6 percentage points from the previous year. The report, VET student outcomes 2023, released today by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows: 50.6 percent of graduates who did not have a job…

Lockheed Martin Australia’s supply of key defence equipment comes with extensive economic benefits, according to the Lockheed Martin Australia 2022 Economic Impact Report, produced by Deloitte Access Economics. LMA supplies the F-35 Joint Strike fighter, Sikorsky helicopters and Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft among others supports 3,422 jobs nationally, according to DE. Highlights from…

By Peter Roberts It is that time of the year when things slow down in the news world with this year's prize so far going to the great schnitzel wars of 2023. The fuss started when a publican – well it had to be a publican – in Adelaide channeled predictions of $100 legs of…

By Peter Roberts Carbon fibre road wheel manufacturer Carbon Revolution‘s birthplace of Geelong, Victoria, or perhaps Mexico will manufacture a new wheel to be produced in a deal announced by the newly minted American-listed Carbon Revolution PLC. The company said it has been awarded a wheel development programme by a premium brand of a major…

By Alison Reeve, Grattan Institute If you listen to the dreamers, hydrogen is the magical fuel of the future that can replace everything from the petrol in your car to the coal in a steelworks. Hype around hydrogen has been building in Australia since at least 2018. Every government has a hydrogen strategy. Hydrogen has…

The young New South Wales government perplexed many when it axed the role of Commissioner for Modern Manufacturing. Here manufacturer Julie Harrison asks ‘where are we headed?’, and offers a way forward. The decision of the New South Wales government to axe the role of Commissioner of Modern Manufacturing just weeks ago came as a…

Manufacturers could be hit by restrictions on the export of fairly commonplace items that could end up in the hands of Russia, now engaged in a brutal invasion of Ukraine, writes Amy McDonnell. In a world first, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States – collectively referred to as the Export…

@AuManufacturing's Australia's 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign has returned, and will culminate with an awards event at Australian Manufacturing Week 2024. Brent Balinski speaks to Martin Ripple from ANCA CNC Machines and Ian Lowrey from Wireman about an always-important topic. Innovation requires a lot. High up on the list are a conviction that things can…

By Peter Roberts Something old and something new has gone into the recipe for the federal government's new $392 million Industry Growth Program which was announced yesterday. Ostensibly the programme is a replacement for the Industry Growth Centres (IGCs) which saw the establishment of six industry growth centres, now at, or past the end of…

By Brent Balinski The Industry Growth Program, offering grants between $50,000 and $5 million to SME and startup commercialisation projects, started accepting applications on Monday. It will no doubt be useful to a long list of companies. However, the replacement for the Entrepreneurs’ Programme does nothing to address some bigger, more immediate problems.  The mood…

By Peter Roberts As if it is not enough of a slap in the face for Australian technology companies the fact that carbon fibre wheel maker Carbon Revolution was bought by American investors for a song, the next step according to media reports is to manufacture in Mexico. According to Automotive News, the company born…

By Tony Wood, Grattan Institute On Thursday Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced a scheme to underwrite the risk of investing in new renewable energy generation and storage. The expansion of the national Capacity Investment Scheme follows a successful pilot study with New South Wales. The government paid A$1.8 billion for just over a gigawatt…

By Peter Roberts The Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic is to visit Jakarta to further cooperation and collaboration with Indonesia on battery technologies and electric vehicles. Husic’s two-day trip is a long overdue ramping up of Australia's industrial relationship with our close neighbour – one that has often seemed neglected in recent decades…

Australia's wine industry recorded the lowest wine production in 15 years in 2022-13, with total sales exceeding wine prodiction, according to new figures from Wine Australia. Total sales of Australian wine were 11 per cent above production in 2022–23 – not enough to substantially reduce pressure on historically high national wine inventory levels Wine Australia’s…

By Peter Roberts Drone manufacture is part of a surprisingly large cohort of robot manufacturers uncovered in a survey of robotics providers in Australia. The survey identified 466 robot and automation suppliers, and while most were essentially service businesses, the study identified 19 percent were manufacturers of robots, including drones. Of the rest 57 were…

Researchers led by UniSA and Swinburne University are searching for companies wanting to develop surface processing capabilities in a planned Surface Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre. Here, we explain how Titomic benefitted from collaborative research at Swinburne. Australia boasts one of the world's largest reserves of titanium, so it follows that incorporating this abundant raw material…

Researchers led by UniSA and Swinburne University of Technology are searching for companies wanting to develop surface processing capabilities in a planned Surface Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre. Here, Atif Majeed explains how SMEs can elevate their technological capabilities and develop competitiveness through involvement in a CRC. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are vital catalysts for…

The advent of the National Reconstruction Fund offers the Federal Government an opportunity to learn from past industry programme mistakes, and make the whole process of industry support more efficient, writes Damon Cantwell. The $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund programme is not offering grants, but a mixture of concessional loans, guarantees and some equity positions.…

Researchers led by UniSA are searching for companies interested to develop surface processing capabilities in a planned Surface Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (SMCRC). Here, Tony Peacock explains the seven benefits of the highly successful CRC programme. The Cooperative Research Centres programme is one of Australia’s longest running and most successful R&D schemes. Tens of billions…

Ben Sorensen explains the recently-launched Big Dipper Challenge, and its role as a doorway to the burgeoning space economy and its supply chain. In a bold leap for the Australian manufacturing sector and space exploration, the ELO2 Consortium has launched the Big Dipper Lunar Regolith Acquisition Challenge, a national initiative designed to propel Australia and…

The groundbreaking Australian-made Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) nanosatellite has arrived in California for launch in November. This article, adapted from one from the Australian Space Agency, details the technology and the companies behind this achievement. SpIRIT is a joint industry mission led by the University of Melbourne and supported by the Australian Space…

@AuManufacturing’s social media discussion and networking group, the Australian Manufacturing Forum on Linkedin, has passed an important membership milestone. The Forum, Australia’s largest professional social media group of Australian manufacturers, jumped past the 14,000 member mark last night with the admission of new members, bringing membership late yesterday to 14,012. New members in past days…

By Peter Roberts Tired of hearing that manufacturers are rent seekers asking for handouts from the government? Tired of paying tax? Well, now you don't need to – in Australia corporate tax is somewhat voluntary depending on who you are. Instead of being in the difficult-to-make-a-buck manufacturing sector perhaps you should think about getting into…

By Peter Roberts In the face of criticism that Australia is building the wrong type of naval vessel in a time of rising tension, BAE Systems Australia has revealed a more lethal, attack version of the Hunter class frigate it is building in Adelaide. Conceived as a largely anti-submarine vessel, the nine Hunter class frigates…

By Peter Roberts Shares in carbon fibre road wheel manufacturer Carbon Revolution disappeared from the ASX this week as the company's shares began trading on the US NASDAQ exchange as Carbon Revolution Inc. The US listing was the culmination of a drawn out fight for survival which will see the company continue to manufacture at…

By Peter Roberts Homer called olive oil liquid gold, but to one Australian company its qualities have morphed an idea into an emerging global force in an age old and seemingly unchanging industry in only 25 years. When horticulturalists Rob McGavin and Paul Riordan planted an initial 200 hectares of olives in 1998 it is…

By Reuben Finighan, The University of Melbourne This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australia’s energy transition. In Australia’s race to net zero emissions, nuclear power has surged back into the news. Opposition leader Peter Dutton argues nuclear is “the only feasible and proven technology” for cutting emissions.…

By Zdenka Kuncic, University of Sydney and Ruomin Zhu, University of Sydney The world is infatuated with artificial intelligence (AI), and for good reason. AI systems can process vast quantities of data in a seemingly superhuman way. However, current AI systems rely on computers running complex algorithms based on artificial neural networks. These use huge…

Earlier in the week Allen Roberts wrote that Australian owned food products faced extinction in the aisles of Australia's duopoly supermarkets. Peter Roberts went on the hunt. I am always on the lookout for Australian made and owned products when I go shopping, but even I was not ready for the desert of genuine Australian…

By Peter Roberts It is not surprising that talks for a Europe Australia Free Trade deal have fallen over as Australia has little to give up to the EU and Europe has everything to lose from anything resembling free trade. Australia has systematically dismantled industry protection since the 1980s when there were quotas on imports…

Sara Lee has been billed as the latest Australian food brand to go to the wall – it is actually New Zealand owned. Nevertheless, here Allen Roberts explains why it is next to impossible to find an Australian owned food brand on the shelves of our supermarket duopoly. When I was a boy in this…

By Rod Sims, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Australia has three ways it can help reduce world greenhouse emissions, the only reduction that matters in tackling climate change. First, we can remove emissions from our economy. This will reduce global emissions by just 1.3%, but it must be done so we share…

@AuManufacturing rarely reports the plethora of surveys and studies promoted by vendors who have a vested interest in gaining attention for their products. But occasionally we come across a study such as that from global technology company SafetyCulture, that reveals some uncomfortable facts about how workers feel about their workplaces. SafetyCulture is a company which…

By Peter Roberts The Chairman of Perth international shipbuilder John Rothwell has celebrated a year of massive ups and the occasional down in an upbeat address to the company's annual general meeting. Rothwell first and foremost celebrated the growth in Austal’s order book to $11.6 billion, if all contract option agreements are exercised. Driven by…

State and territory government expenditure on vocational education and training (VET) totalled $10.9 billion in 2022, according to the latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). This expenditure was an increase of $0.4 billion or 4.1 percent from 2021. NCVER's Government funding of VET 2022 report found that the main expenditure…

Eminent Australian political leader Kim Beazley has weighed in on the AUKUS submarine debate, writing that the submarines were necessitated by Australia's strategic position in our region. Beazley, a former Governor of Western Australia, Ambassador to the United States and federal opposition leader, said Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines would be worth the wait, and the cost.…

By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Last night ABC’s Four Corners investigated the problem-plagued Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro power station, focusing on a bogged tunnelling machine, toxic gas and an unexpected volume of sludge. While these specific problems are new, we have criticised this project since 2019 and outlined six key problems even earlier elsewhere. How…

@AuManufacturing's latest online webinar – Your Digitisation Journey – is now available online for you to view via our YouTube channel. Hear how Christopher Janssen, Managing Director at GPC Electronics, harnessed technology to become Australia's largest electronics manufacturer. Vanessa Katsanevakis, Director of Sussex Taps talks of the sophisticated manufacturing, materials tracking and storage and metal…

By Peter Roberts ATCO and global gas giant BOC Linde have been selected by the South Australian government to construct a world-first hydrogen power station at Port Bonython, near the industrial city of Whyalla on Spencer Gulf. BOC Linde was seen by many as the front runner among the 29 companies competing to build the…

Cori Stewart and a group of eminent Australians have just returned from Europe and the Middle East, discussing growing manufacturing in a fast decarbonising world, and accelerating Industry 4.0 adoption. In the second part of a two-part series, she visits Germany and the Middle East. The Australian mission spent several days were spent with Germany’s…

Cori Stewart and a group of eminent Australians have just returned from Europe and the Middle East, discussing growing manufacturing in a fast decarbonising world, and accelerating Industry 4.0 adoption. In the first part of a two-part series, she shares insights into the implications of EU decarbonisation, and the growth of manufacturing hubs in Belgium.…

Apprentice and trainee commencements appear to be returning to levels seen before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The Apprentices and trainees 2023: March quarter report shows that apprentice and trainee commencements increased steeply during the pandemic. While they have declined…

By Adam Bartley, RMIT University and Matthew Warren, RMIT University A 12-tonne fishing boat weighs anchor three kilometres off the port of Adelaide. A small crew huddles over a miniature submarine, activates the controls, primes the explosives, and releases it into the water. The underwater drone uses sensors and sonar to navigate towards its pre-programmed…

By Peter Roberts Fortescue plans to make a final investment decision in December on its ambitious plans for large scale hydrogen electrolysers to be sited at Incitec Pivot's Gibson Island plant in Brisbane. The company issued a statement that US supplier Plug Power was preferred supplier for the proposed 550 MW (megawatt) PEM (proton-exchange membrane)…

By Tony Wood, Grattan Institute Australia has a legislated target to reduce greenhouse emissions, a federal government with commitments to increase the share of renewable electricity and reduce power prices, and a globally important economic opportunity at its feet. In the second half of the government’s current term, delivery looks hard across the board. All…

Former coalition minister for defence industry Christopher Pyne has revealed his dismay at the closure of the car industry which came after a challenge from then Treasurer Joe Hockey for GM Holden to leave the country. Pyne did not express misgivings publicly at the time, but according to an interview in the website of the…

By Peter Roberts Australian economists have long been seen by manufacturers as the enemy as, led by those staffing the Productivity Commission, they have vigorously fought against any form of activist industry policy by government. The view is that policing backing even new industry such as green energy technologies, 3D printing or critical metals processing…

Infection control and dental manufacturer Dentalife has tripled in size over three years and is using collaboration as the catalyst to scaleup even further. Here Brett Henderson profiles the company, and how collaboration in business works. Dentalife is a 25-year-old family business under second generation management that manufactures infection control products and dental materials in…

In the final part of our The New Reinventors editorial series, we hear from BioCarbon. Brent Balinski speaks to co-founder and Director John Mellowes, whose focus has shifted from agricultural clients to those manufacturing steel.   This website regularly reports on the attempts to reduce the greenhouse gas output of steelmaking, which according to the World…

By Alan Finkel, The University of Queensland This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australia’s energy transition. Just over a year since US President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, it’s becoming clear this strangely named piece of legislation could have a powerful impact…

The UK government has awarded £3.95 billion to BAE Systems to further design and engineer the UK’s and potentially Australia's next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine, SSN-AUKUS. With critical decisions being made on sourcing Michael Slattery looks at the difficulties faced by Australian industry to have a meaningful role in the programme. The latest AUKUS contract for…

On Saturday @AuManufacturing reported that with Saudi Arabia inaugurating its first car factory, Australia is now alone among the G20 in not having it own car industry We said: “An outside observer looking in at Australia might surmise that our recent vision has been to consciously de-industrialise.” Here @AuManufacturing readers and members of our Australian…

By Peter Roberts The news from Saudi Arabia is great for the world car industry but marks a new low for Australia's automotive sector. California electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors has opened the first car manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia, as the country makes good on its promise of making automobiles as well as other…

By Muhammad Rizwan Azhar, Edith Cowan University Picture this: you’re cruising down the Great Ocean Road in your brand new electric vehicle (EV), the ocean to your left and the wind in your hair. But what if I told you this idyllic drive could turn into a nightmare, with the faint smell of something burning?…

By age 22, the highest qualification completed for just over a quarter (26 percent) of young Australians is a vocational qualification, while a further quarter (25 percent) had completed a university degree, according to data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). Generation Z: life at 22 uses results from the Longitudinal Surveys…

By Alan Labas, Federation University Australia; Benjamin Matthew Long, Federation University Australia, and Dylan Liu, Federation University Australia Food waste is a global problem with approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food wasted each year throughout the food lifecycle – from the farm to food manufacturers and households. Across the food supply chain, Australians waste around…

By Peter Roberts News that Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance is pushing ahead with its move towards green steel production at the Whyalla steelworks comes as it is clear that the first mover producers of seriously low carbon products can expect strong market demand for their products. GFG's Liberty Primary Steel over the weekend extinguished its…

By Flavio Macau, Edith Cowan University and Deepa Bannigidadmath, Edith Cowan University As Australia’s housing affordability crisis worsens, governments are spending more on housing. Victoria’s Andrews government has announced a suite of reforms (such as boosting social housing and making planning processes faster) in an effort to get 800,000 extra homes in Victoria over the…

While ABC Bullion is the official manufacturer of the Melbourne Cup, the making of the cup is a true team effort for precious metals producer Pallion Group and manufacturing silversmiths W.J. Sanders. The manufacturing journey starts with the doré (golden) bars, blocks of semi-pure gold and silver produced at the Newcrest Cadia Mine and then…

By Peter Roberts The LIBERTY Primary Steel steelworks at Whyalla in South Australia has unloaded its last-ever consignment of coal as the company continues its transition to green steel production. Owned by GFG Alliance, Liberty set mid September as the closure of its coal-fed coke-making ovens and the transition from a coke-fed blast furnace to…

While Australia talks the big talk about being a critical minerals and battery metals superpower, backed by the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, Australian metals companies continue to be lured overseas by deeper financial markets and more supportive government policies. Element 25 has become the latest to site in the United States where the Biden…

It comes as a surprise to learn that Austrade no longer provides a readily accessible directory of Australia's manufacturer exporters. Here John Sheridan explains how his new trade showcase is a model for showing Australian capabilities to the world. The Australia – India Export & Trade showcase is a Business to Business (B-to-B) platform designed…

By Elizabeth Thurbon, UNSW Sydney; Alexander M. Hynd, UNSW Sydney, and Hao Tan, University of Newcastle This week, a diverse group of organisations called on the Australian federal government to establish a A$100 billion, ten-year policy package to turbocharge Australia’s green energy transition. Proposed by groups including the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Australian Conservation…

The AROSE consortium and the EPE and Lunar Outpost Oceania consortium are each designing early-stage prototypes of a semi-autonomous Moon rover to be transported to the Moon via NASA. In this contributed article, AROSE outlines the challenges and industry opportunities. When Australia’s Trailblazer lunar rover arrives on the Moon, the remotely operated vehicle will confront…

By Bruno Vicari Stefani, CSIRO and Matthew Wright, University of Oxford Solar panel technology has made enormous progress in the last two decades. In fact, the most advanced silicon solar cells produced today are about as good as the technology will get. So what’s next? Enter “tandem solar cells”, the new generation in solar technology.…

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading. 5) Neo-Bionica launches onshore critical medical manufacturing process Advanced MedTech contract manufacturer Neo-Bionica has revealed the expansion of its manufacturing services with the launch of its new hermitization capability – a first for Australian industry. Hermitization is a critical…

By Peter Roberts The news that contract manufacturer Neo-Bionica has established Australia's first facility capability of hermetically sealing implantable medical devices brings to mind the story of how Cochlear's manufacturing skills in the area kept it from going offshore – and remain a secret of its success. The process of hermitization which Neo-Bionica is now…

By Paul Cureton, Lancaster University Innovative design choices can have a massive impact in the theatre of war, so it is important to understand the principles behind their development. Recent use of low-cost cardboard drones by Ukraine, supplied by Australia, to attack targets in Russia is a good example of how this can work. Australia…

By Tony Wood, Grattan Institute “To ensure Australian consumers continue to have access to reliable electricity supplies, it’s critical that planned investments in transmission, generation and storage projects are urgently delivered.” This week, we heard one of the strongest warnings yet from Daniel Westerman, head of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). So far, media…

By Peter Layton, Griffith University The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China’s growing power, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in a speech on Monday. The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defence and other…

Green hydrogen company Hiringa Energy and agricultural and pastoral enterprise Sundown Pastoral Co are creating a world’s first Good Earth Cotton farm which will produce its own renewable ammonia and green hydrogen to decarbonise its operations. Here David Heard explains the implications for agriculture and wider industry. As Australia inches closer to our legislative target…

Renewable power generation's share of the National Energy Market is showing a sudden and rapid rise in importance with renewables now playing a bigger role in Australia’s energy mix than ever before. The federal government's March 2023 Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory showed that renewables accounted for 39 per cent of generation…

Australian markets are being flooded with non-compliant products that threaten both consumers and manufacturers alike. Here Neil Clout argues that weak regulations, rarely enforced are eroding Australia's industrial and skills base. In the vast landscape of global commerce, the competition is fierce, and the stakes are high. For Australian manufacturers, the challenges are particularly daunting.…

A S M Monjurul Hasan asks why we hesitate to embrace the immense potential of energy in industrial progress, and explains why lower power prices are just the beginning. In the realm of industrial energy efficiency, the prevailing narrative has long centred on energy savings, and rightfully so. After all, reducing energy consumption is a…

By Peter Roberts It seems a long time ago that Australia was in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic and novel mRNA technologies were hot news. Though the technology had been around for decades it was the pandemic which saw the first major vaccines made using the genetic technology approved for public use in 2020,…

By Peter Roberts The news was inevitable in a way – the Army has confirmed that it has fired a weapon system at a simulated enemy remotely from an autonomous uncrewed vehicle (see here for full details). The confirmation came in a blandly worded post by the Australian Army on social media that included pictures…

Malware in manufacturing is a bigger problem than many would assume. Here Tony Burnside looks at how cyber criminals leverage the cloud to mount their attacks, and what can be done to protect manufacturing organisations. Most of the headlines around cybercrime and data loss in Australia in recent months – and there have been plenty…

By Peter Roberts It is becoming clear that the Albanese Government is not the panacea many had hoped to see leading to a reversal of the downward slide in the fortunes of Australian manufacturing. While the government is way ahead of its coalition predecessor in tackling the key issues holding back manufacturing – it is…

BAE Systems Australia turned 70 this month, making it one of Australia's oldest, largest and fastest growing defence manufacturers. Here Ben Hudson reflects on the contribution of the defence sector in Australia to national security and prosperity. All too often I believe we have made a point of focusing on major programme challenges, without reflecting…

On Monday we published part one of this article, concerning what a scaleup company is and why they matter. Today we conclude by looking at what they need. By Brent Balinski. There are 25,000 tonnes of wet wipes thrown out by Australians every year, all made of polyester or polypropylene and therefore non-biodegradable, and almost…

There is something particularly cruel for Australian manufacturing in China's continuing targeting of wine exports as part of its – failed – attempt to force Australia to toe a more Beijing friendly policy line. With China’s recent move to remove crippling trade sanctions on Australian barley holding up hopes for wine, nothing is sure and…

ADVERTISING FEATURE By Stéphane Marouani The automotive field has historically been a rich area of innovation, with increasing vehicle complexity and tight production schedules requiring the adoption of new tools and techniques to build a differentiated product. More recently, automotive engineers are faced with new obstacles as they are tasked with integrating AI into vehicle…

Following last week's 2023 National Manufacturing Summit in Canberra, Weld Australia has issued a call for transformative national policy that delivers secure supply chains and a diverse renewables and clean energy economy, sustained by the manufacturing industry. Here Geoff Crittenden writes that Australia must take inspiration from the United States, and their Inflation Reduction Act…

By Peter Roberts Queensland, a state only a few years seemingly totally committed to coal fired electricity generation as well as fossil fuel export, is putting on a greener front as investments in green energy reap quick results. According to the government the state is halfway to achieving its 2030 renewable energy target with a…