If I had a wish for the new year it would be to see the criminalisation of the Gillardian expression, 'going forward'

Yup and only limited by the ultra-high price of energy in this country.

How much energy dependant innovation and manufacture could we do if we could retail energy at around 3 cents PKWH and all the co-op operators to make around 200 gross as their reward?

Can't happen here as long as we are held in a 50s time warp by the current crop of ( hum hah, um, you know, hum hah, well look, that's a long time away, maybe next century, we haven't extracted all the coal we have shares in?) pollies on both sides of the aisle?

Tech innovation boom in an imposed from without, straight jacket!?

See thorium in five minutes, then understand we'd be paid annual billions to store the nuclear waste of other nations!

Which is literally in MSR technology, thousands of years worth of free gifted unspent fuel with a halflife of just 300 hundred years following the proposed MSR reprocessing. Even then still suitable as long life space batteries that burn up with reentry!

We have to ask our alleged leaders? WTF is the fvcking problem!? Why aren't you bar stewards getting up off of your abundant posteriors and doing a little more than expelling tons of completely redundant (coal-fired) hot air!? tech innovation indeed!?
Alan B.

The trouble with some tech innovation is the smirk that some of it gets when presented to alleged leaders, who don't believe what they're hearing. Well because BS is their MO. And they believe that's what others are doing in the search for power, influence or a few dollars more/a fistful of dollars?

Lance Hadcock saw that some smirk and dismissal as he approached leader after leader and pollie after pollie, telling them we had mountains of iron or in the west, some of it so pure it could be welded! And can you help with some start-up funding? And you guessed it, smirk, smirk, you don't expect us to believe or invest taxpayer money!?

Look at the following outcome. A virtually worthless letter of, trading while insolvent? Chase Manhatten, that got that project started.

Meaning, it got started on almost entirely local money and mining expertise! Could have happened just like that with an all Australian miner but for traditionally recalcitrant Aussie pollies with plenty of money for sports rorts etc, but none for Aussie battlers, innovation or productive job-creating co-ops!

And the annual billions that have flowed offshore since! Smirk, smirk! Via a tax-avoiding, profit repatriating foreign multinational miner.

Now there's tech innovation? Well, how much of it can we sell at bargain-basement prices? Our standard response when disbelieving Aussie smirk, smirk pollies are in control/involved.
Alan B.

Alan B,
I agree with you on this. The dilemma is that from the top of the political & academic pyramid all the way down the various levels of power controlled by the Peter principle hierarchy, every single bureaudroid is highly educated. So, they have the power to prevent progress in order to prevent the Domino effect taking place !
There is a locked stairway that prevents pragmatists gaining access ! All this at the cost of the Environment & our society !

I have comments on two of the technologies that you have proposed as being good for the future. I know very little on the other technologies that you have proposed as making great advances in the future.

Vaccine technology is an old technology where we have seen major improvements in experimentation and regulatory frameworks in the recent.. The basic technology is still the same.

Green hydrogen has some fundamental physical and technical problems which I cannot see being overcome at all in the medium term future let alone the short-term future. The hydrogen molecule is the smallest molecule in the universe. Any storage or transport facility for hydrogen gas must meet incredible technical specifications and quality standards as it is a highly flammable, explosive gas. As a liquid it must be cooled to less than -240° C at a minimum and even lower depending upon the very high pressures required to maintain it as a liquid. Even the US space program which uses hydrogen fuelled boosters loses 1% of its fuel load every day that the rocket sits on the ground. I would guess that they have the highest technical standards for storage, which no doubt come at a considerable cost. Liquid hydrogen is also a bulky fuel. Only 5 kg of liquid hydrogen can be stored in a 75 L tank. The tank must also be "perfectly isolated" to avoid any heating which could lead to expansion and gasification. We are a long way from seeing hydrogen fuels making major market incursions.

I think curbing wants will enable us to catch up with needs !