A major report marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Industry Capability Network (ICN) has highlighted the massive benefits of the organisation which links 100,000 Australian suppliers to proponents of major infrastructure and other projects. The report, Industry Capability Network. Past, Present and Future by the University of Sydney’s Phillip Toner and UTS…
Australia has formally joined the US-led Landsat Next satellite programme in a humiliating endpoint to out abandonment of an indigenous Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) R&D development. Developing our own EOS was a victim of cuts meted out to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources in the first Chalmers budget, cuts which shocked the science…
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…
The federal government has delivered on its promise of more rapid defence decision making, accelerating the manufacture of the Ghost Shark underwater autonomous vehicle for undersea surveillance, reconnaissance and strike at a new factory to be built in Australia. The government has already spent $90 million along with Anduril Industries developing the very large autonomous…
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 federal government’s Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive is taking on increasing importance with US lithium producer Albemarle scaling back its lithium production plans Kemerton plant near at Bunbury in Western Australia which has been hit by fluctuating commodity prices. Albemarle has announced it will halt construction of the third production train at the facility…
Defence and space manufacturer Electro Optic Systems has announced that its Space Technologies business has secured a $9 million contract with the Australian Defence Force Joint Capabilities Division to further develop space capabilities. The contract follows an earlier $5 million contract announced in April which the company said at the time should be completed in…
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…