Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, June 2 – June 6, 2025

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading.

5) Sydney’s new buses arrive from China despite local build promises

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns is facing criticism after buses promised to be built locally arrived nearly complete from a Chinese factory, despite government pledges to revitalise domestic manufacturing.

Transport Minister John Graham defended the purchase on Saturday, saying the government always planned to import bus “shells” from China for completion at a Nowra facility, as 15 of 126 electric buses arrived at Port Kembla this week.

4) Groundhog Day as Australia goes backwards again

Groundhog Day: The annual Harvard Growth Lab’s Economic Complexity Index (ECI) figures have been released – and Australia’s ranking has dropped, again.

Australia now ranks 105th in the world in the measure of the complexity of the products it produces placing us between Botswana and Côte d’Ivoire. Let me repeat that: Botswana and Côte d’Ivoire!

Am I the only one who thinks something is wrong with the substance of our economy as so under-performing and with a widespread lack of urgency in response to our underperformance? By Dr Jens Goennemann.

3) Mining innovation born from sabotaged research transforms tailings management

A vindictive equipment operator’s act of sabotage in 1989 led to an internationally significant breakthrough in mining waste management.

Simran Gill speaks to David Smirk, the founder of Phibion, a Top 10 Gold Award winner at @AuManufacturing’s recent Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers awards.

2) World’s biggest high-purity alumina factory progresses with $20 million contract awarded to McCosker Contracting

A contract worth over $20 million has been awarded for concrete works at what will be the world’s biggest high-purity aluminium materials factory, located in Gladstone, Queensland and with capacity for over 10,000 tonnes of HPA equivalent per year.

According to a statement from Alpha HPA — the owner of the upcoming factory — the contract to McCosker Contracting is a major milestone in the upcoming “10-hectare, state-of-the-art facility” and in Alpha’s progress.

Development is being supported through a $400 million debt facility from the Australian government and $180 million in equity capital raised.

1) The restless portfolio: How Australia’s bureaucratic reshuffling reveals a crisis of industrial vision

Australia’s approach to industry policy over the past six decades tells a story of remarkable institutional restlessness. By Dr John H Howard.

Picture: Parliament house at dusk (credit Thennicke, CC BY-SA 4.0)