Government support = taxpayer handouts ie subsidies

The best support the government can provide is to get out of the way. No carbon dioxide tax, no mining tax, no restrictive labour laws, no environmental nonsense. Let business sink or swim in a free market.

aluminium is in decline right around the world. The only thing we get from mining is Tax, we don't sell iron ore or any other sort of ore, company's sell ore.

579
That is a salutary reminder:[private] companies sell ore [not "us"]. But who owns the ore?

The suggestion that we spend multi-millions to extend a pipeline just so the remote town of Nhulunbuy can continue to exist is outrageous. If the jobs go and people are forced to move from Nhulunbuy well, I'm sure its a nice place if you like remote parts of Arnhem Land, but maybe that wouldn't be a tragedy.

The author correctly identifies the major problem that is adversely affecting not only the mining sector, but also the other main industry sectors, namely the overvalued Australian dollar. It is a problem that appears unlikely to go away in a hurry, unless perchance the right 'innovative policy choices' are made in the very near future.

Legislating for the subsidisation of renewable energy development, the carbon tax, and the mining tax, although innovative, clearly exacerbated the main industry sector problems.

Because of its lightness aluminium is an important metal.
I think the other plant in Australia is under threat anyway and
Kurri Kurri has closed already.

If it is a long term only supplier in Australia it might well make a
pipeline or a power line from Darwin a practical proposition.
A local supply of aluminium is a security infrastructure.
After all everything will have to become more local in future.