Australia has an historic opportunity to build a new, export-focused manufacturing sector based on renewable energy.
As a bonus, it could enable a less politically fraught conversation about climate change. Global action on climate change is in Australia’s national interest.
How then have we managed to have decades of WHS processes and procedures, outsourcing and supply chain protocols, and pandemic and emergency planning, yet no-one has run a scenario of the risk of completely running out of single-use PPE, (in particular, gowns and masks), locally, nationally and globally?
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V2food — makers of the Rebel Whopper patties you may have noticed in Hungry Jack’s stores since late-last year — is preparing to open its factory, get into supermarkets, and target the export market. Brent Balinski spoke to founder Nick Hazell about the potential of plant-based meats.
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Sales by hearing implant manufacturer Cochlear plunged 60 per cent in April, confirming company predictions of the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Sydney company reported that surgery cancellations as hospitals were emptied to prepare for the virus occurred as previously predicted. Cochlear implant sales declined 80 per cent in the month with most…
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A small Australian boat builder is further demonstrating their workboat design and build capabilities with the delivery of another vessel to operate in the Port of Gladstone. Over the past twelve years, Queensland-based aluminium boat builder BTB Marine has built and delivered thirteen workboats, fast landing craft and other commercial vessels built specifically for marine…
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A month into our campaign to crowd source a new deal plan for manufacturing, Lance Worrall finds we simply do not have an Australian industrial policy. But our new deal plan submissions show the way forward. The fight against Covid 19 is a fight for our survival. If, as politicians are telling us, this is…
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Chemicals and explosives group Orica has reported strong sales and profit growth for the first half year barely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Melbourne company reported a statutory Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) of $165 million for the six months to 31 March 2020, compared to $33 million in the prior corresponding period. Sales…
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Comment by Peter Roberts When I launched our campaign to crowd source a new deal plan for manufacturing on April 14 I was hopeful of a positive response. But I never expected the groundswell of ideas and innovations that we have published day by day since then. The Australian Manufacturing Forum and @AuManufacturing news and…
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Deakin progresses sodium battery design Materials scientists at Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials have discovered that super concentrated ionic liquids are key to achieving better batteries that utilise sodium rather than lithium. The new work by ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) PhD student Dmitrii Rakov, combines sodium metal anodes and safe,…
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The Australian Manufacturing Forum and @AuManufacturing’s campaign to crowd source a new deal plan for manufacturing is in its final day. Lyn George closes it out, sharing ways to back the brilliant ideas that could reshape entire industries via some lessons from the manufacturing heartland of Geelong. The current Covid-19 crisis has brutally exposed Australia’s…
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