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Australian manufacturing is at the cross roads : Comments
By Leon Gettler, published 22/5/2009Manufacturing in Australia needs a bold plan focused on developing emerging industries to take on the world.
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You have a huge problem to overcome with culture in our manufacturing industry that you hope to sweep under the carpet with the new green mantra of Emerging Technologies.
These CRC are money sinks and great places to work for academics, who don't have to meet cash flow objectives or profit projections, do they even know what those are, I wonder. It's all about spin though isn't it?
We have a few, a very few, high tech industries who have managed to win overseas work at enormous cost to the taxpayer, and maybe a few more to come. No more than our statistical allowance really, nothing special there at all. It does not mean Australians are better at this, we've just had our share of good fortune and being in the right place at the right time.
I have huge doubts about this whole wishful thinking behavior of the green industry, that somehow we will develop all these emerging technologies and they will replace all the other industries that the green types want to see wiped out. it has no basis in reality, it smacks of youthful enthusiasm of someone who is not in business and attends too many seminars on how good it's going to be.
You want to develop business, it's not difficult, lower the tax rates, give us reasonable employment conditions, don't hang millstones around our necks and let us (yes us, the ones who take risks and run businesses) reinvest a share of our profits in R&D unencumbered by government and academics who think they know better - the fact you are not in business and want to give me advice is laughable.