explain why the public should continue to subsidize Hydro-N's loss making Kurri-Kurri smelter with power prices below
Luciferase,
probably a very similar reason every other highly inefficient outfit such as Government services are being subsidised. Look at your own personal situation & see if you could live the way you do without subsidisation.
We would not have a society without subsidisation. I do agree however that subsidisation should not be a valid excuse to pump up inefficiency but in the case of industry there's presently no other way. Bureaucracy however needs urgent reduction of subsidising.
I see subsidies being horrendously wasted on a daily basis & it has led to form an utterly dysfunctional society, a society with was functional before the subsidies were introduced.

Anyone forgotten about the big players in the front row who ruck their stooges if any hint of a veiled threat to their vested interests arises? Only when the very last litre of fossil fuel is auctioned off on EBay will we see a shift to serious investment and dollars towards renewable technologies. The ideas are there, the trick is in the affordability of per unit cost. For the meanwhile a renewed investment in LNG reserves & infrastructure will see us through, hence an announcement of a new US base (to rival the old Subic Bay in PI)to be built opposite Darwin - near Mandorah, to protect the front rowers share prices. Forget about Australian manufacturing, my old lecturer @ UTS Bill Cheshire would would have told us 20 yrs ago, that manufacturing in Oz has been cactus since the Silver Budgie stepped in it during the early '80s.

Quite true, Yabby.
It does go round and around.
The oil producing states are spending more in their own countries
to placate the masses stirred up by the Arab spring and are using more
of their own oil, and so reducing the export availability.
I suspect on a fraction is spent in their customers countries.
Perhaps 20%, or 40% and of course they have production costs which
have been rising dramatically because of falling well pressures and
increasing water mix.

I have never seen any figures that show how much comes back.

Albie Manton in Darwin

“… serious investment and dollars towards renewable technologies.”

You are right.

This should have been done years ago. The writing was well and truly on the wall - and without the issues and debate surrounding carbon emissions.

Our carbon tax ... $3.5 billion … used to purchase foreign carbon credits would be better kept here and invested in research and development of renewable technologies.

When it comes to aluminium, Danielle, huge base-load power is needed. Electrolysis and melting cryolite at 1000 degrees requires huge energy input, so you can forget alternatives to coal other than burning gas, nuclear, or hydro-electricity. Coal-burning for aluminium smelting was on its last legs years ago and only gov't energy subsidy kept the Hydro-Norsk show on the road.

It concerns me that Greens have little idea of industrial energy requirements when they espouse alternatives to coal, gas, nuclear. Perhaps they would be more pragmatic if they understood more deeply what underpins their world, rather than luxuriating in child-like idealism.

Luciferase,

Point taken. Our so-called leaders must inform themselves better ... and it would be an advantage if we, the general public, were also better informed.

The following from the Harvard Business School is quite sobering.

Business Summit: The Coming World Oil Crisis
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6218.html

“While the world's demand for oil continues its unabated growth, driven by growing Asian demand, supplies of oil have likely peaked. The coming imbalance of supply and demand is so huge that the world needs to add six Saudi Arabias by 2030 to meet demand. Without enormous changes, the world faces an imminent oil crisis.
There are no silver bullets that can solve this problem—not more drilling, greater vehicle fuel efficiency, electric cars, or renewable energy. Political and business leaders must support these measures and more; whatever can help avert a major crisis. This includes actions to dramatically decrease demand, increase supply, and develop alternatives to oil. Doing so will require policy, innovation, and leadership.

But first it requires that people wake up to the sobering ramifications of peak oil, which may be the defining issue of this century.

Key concepts include:

The supply/demand imbalance makes the world's energy future uncertain.

"Peak oil" may be the 21st century's defining issue.

In addition to the economic arguments for renewable energy, there is also a strong sustainability story.

The severity of the situation requires leadership, innovative thinking, and immediate action. “