First up: governments can't run their own departments properly; they have no clue at all about business or manufacturing. They wreck business and manufacturing with red, now as well, green tape. There are no problems in this country that, if not caused by government in the first place, have been made considerably worse by them.

Albanese has kicked off with green energy manufacturing, for heaven's sake, when that rubbish can be produced much cheaper by China, using our coal - the stuff that we are not allowed to use!

“Enormous jobs”! The only thing enormous is Albanese’s ego - without the necessary intelligence to control it.

Australian manufacturing has dropped from 25% of GDP to 5% of GDP, since greedy politicians fell in love with Communist China. It will take a lot more smarts than we have in Canberra to put that right.

“The greatest threats to national security sit around his Cabinet table.”

Never were truer words written. What a shower they are! Bowen, Wong and Plibersek being the standouts operating according to the three re i's - ideology, idiocy and incompetence. With their supposed leader, Albanese, all mouth and trousers.

As for the defence force: well, as one general whose name I can't recall said, a country's military reflects the general society. Enough said.

But, if we are going to get back to manufacturing - a huge ‘if’ - let's make stuff that we need and which can be cut off from us at anytime Communist China feels like it; not windmills and solar panels, which are being stockpiled anyway because of a drop in investment in unreliable power generation - particularly as they will be subsidised by taxpayers.

No economy can be sustainable or even grow when the goods on sale are poor quality or of no use to anyone ! Do manufacture sellable goods one must first procure capable people to produce them & a Govt that assists manufacturing instead of fleecing it to pay for its voters.
The Tax system is another insurmountable hurdle for manufacturing here & creating a capable workforce. Without a NMNS every Dollar spent on revitalising manufacturing is literally three Dollars wasted. Getting rid of recreational drugs is vital to achieve change in Australia.

Made in Oz would be nice if anyone wants to relocate all or part of their production here. But who would want to without huge taxpayer subsidies? Elbow who promised rapid rail umpteen times is full of it.

If we want made in Oz to become our future, then we need affordable energy and that ain't coal gas or backed renewables. It's nuclear and not conventional nuclear, but MSR thorium and or MSR nuclear waste (unspent fuel) that we are paid millions to take.

That's not the whole story, but without root and branch reform of the tax system, a hard ask in today's world. A simple flat tax of 15% without tax reductions or returns would do that job and allow current tax compliance spending that averages 7% to be returned to the bottom line.

I would also impose a 15% transaction tax as well, and that would be reduced according to the amount of company tax actually paid to the ATO.

Simply put, you are going to pay us a tax on all Australian earned profits! And the best deal is to pay the company tax. Further to that, I would grant a 5-10 year tax holiday on all new startups.

Taxpayer funds could be used to kickstart local co-op manufacturing, and council run nuclear energy reticulatas.

Foreign investment that comes a debt we pay and is backed by local banks shouldn't fly. We could do all the above without involving foreigners. By supporting local co-ops and family niche manufacturing.

Look, we once build world class cars here. and we still have most of those skills here who could become mentors and pass those skills and how to knowledge to young Australian workers.

Remember the Celtic economic miracle and how it was f--ked by foreign debt laden real estate speculators.

We should learn from mistakes, ours and theirs. Not repeat them!
Alan B.

Foreign investment backed by a letter of credit from banks too big to fail, but all but trading while insolvent, is rubbish investment, we pay for, with a 30% premium at the checkout!

The money that actually pays the wages and for the machinery etc., is locally sourced! Sure, it gets a foreign company here. But do we need them to get Australian made a reality, rather hot air designed for the next election?

We should do all the above, but, leave the foreign investor and their oft dubious letters of credit, out.

Car manufacturing costs could be halved by having all the manufacture done by a single company operating from a single site! Or a number of Australian parts manufacturing co-ops operating as a manufacturing conglomerate operating from a single site. Rather than from all over the country!

At the end of the day the co-ops could amalgamate as a single entity for tax saving purposes, but remain essentially, multiple cooperating co-ops.
Alan B.

Right now is a golden opportunity to build a no nonsense Australian 4x4. No fancy, easily scratched interior. Just a 4x4 preferably Diesel along the lines of the earlier Landrover. A vehicle that is specifically made for outback conditions not like Toorak tractors of the past 30 years. Affordable to buy, affordable to run, affordable to maintain & above all no idiotic electronics that render a vehicle useless at the first crossing of a creek. City folk can buy their TESLAS etc but the majority of need to drive people will much prefer the simpler version. Just talk to people who had to fork out thousands just to get their car back to an approved computer shop to get it going again till the next alarm stops it again.

Mr Albanese's "Made in Australia" is yet another relaunch of the nonsense that Ross Garnaut has been working up ever since 2007 - Open Borders, Carbon Pricing, Net Zero, and Energy Superpower.

Garnaut is a toxic combination - an international-trade "economist", Chyna buff, and woke as they come

Always good to be reminded of the old solid economics foundations of business, industry and trade. What’s disturbing is the silence of our industry leaders. Some, we know, love the prospect of an ever growing flow of government dollars to kick start and grow doomed enterprises. But surely there are still some wise old captains of industry left who are sickened by the ignorance of our government and dismayed by the inertia of its Opposition. Have they all gone woke or given up in dismay? Please tell me no.

Hi Graham

I admire your courage in your OLO article also appearing in the Epoch Times at http://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/what-can-we-expect-from-the-inflation-reduction-act-2-0-post-5627528

With the Epoch Times' affiliations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times my own articles drew unwelcome interest from Chinese-PRC agents (under "student" cover) in rural NSW and from Chinese MSS "diplomatic" surveillance teams in Canberra with no evident protection given by Australian security services or police.

No protection? That was, of course, at a time that even Australia's security services, were beholden to the then Labor Government's pro-China Sinophiliac "bendover" political and economic policies toward the PRC. So even the protection of Australian citizens in Australia was being adversely effected.

The authorities protect Australians from PRC agents today, even under a Labor Government, I fervently hope.

This is not to say former senior Labor Politicians are not rewarded by the PRC, even today - what Mike Burgess was talking about.

Cheers Mavs

One problem that appears to effect Australian manufacturing is the huge asymmetry between China and The World with respect to postage costs. This is something that may need to be addressed by tariffs. Apparently the international agreements on postage favour Chinese trade in the age of web consumerism. A $5 item can have a $10 delivery within Australia but $0 from China- despite the greater distance (to the Green's unstated chagrin)- making Australian production unviable. In the long term Australian over reliance on Chinese production will likely hollow out Australian capability and capacity and wealth. In my view Australian's need to change their consumerist vision of life away from the impetus of the Hebrew- Edward Bernay's and his emotional consumerism- in favour of more needs based durable goods including foodstuffs

From memory it was David Ricardo that talked about comparative advantage of nations (not so much Adam Smith- but I'm sure there are principles that lend themselves to nations) but the point probably still stands- but sometimes other issues such as politics are important considerations. Also prices are dynamic. I've come to mistrust David Ricardo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo