In order to reinvigorate Australia's moribund manufacturing sector, the Federal government needs to play a pro-active role. In addition to support for export industries, the government needs to introduce policies across the areas of education and skills development, support for industrial research and development, protection of intellectual property, access to venture capital, innovative management, government purchasing policies, and social assessment of new technology.

However, it seems such an approach is still being opposed by economic neoliberalists who vehemently assert that governments should instead trust the "magic of the market". However, the decline of Australian manufacturing demonstrates that this approach has failed. If Australia continues down this misguided path, we will become an economic backwater, struggling to carve out a poor living from our declining resources. By this stage, the only asset left to strip will be the land itself.