Comment by Peter Roberts A number of home truths are emerging since the surprise re-election of the Morrison government – that our economy is strong for example when it is not. But the potential for a shift in power and focus in Australia’s expanding defence industry sector from South to Western Australia has gone largely…
Analysis by Peter Roberts Australia’s Productivity Commission has pointed to a deep seated sickness holding back the Australian economy caused by falling levels of company investment and R&D. The Commission’s Productivity Bulletin 2019 just released shows labour productivity rose in 2017/16 by 0.2 per cent. This measure of output per hour worked is way below…
Ask different people and you’ll likely get different answers about how well Australia does industrial design.
Analysis by Peter Roberts There are Australian biotechnology companies, and there are Australian manufacturers. And then there is CSL Limited (ASX: CSL). What began in 1991 as a division of the Australian department of health, has grown today into a global colossus, and an Australian biotechnology manufacturing success story. Listed in 1994 at $2.30 a…
It is hard to think of carbon fibre in Australia and not think of Geelong. It’s a material with countless uses – in cars, sporting goods, exoskeletons and beyond – and Victoria’s second city is home to the scientific, engineering and commercial expertise needed to develop it into the products of tomorrow.
Australia can claim numerous motion picture technology achievements. From the current work of special effects and animation houses Animal Logic and Rising Sun, to the Cineon workstation (which won a Scientific and Technical Oscar) developed at Kodak Melbourne, all the way back to legendary inventor Henry Sutton’s proto-TV.
In Tokyo the night US President Trump arrived to visit Japan’s PM Abe Shinzo and its new emperor I am reminded of Japan’s great contribution to the 20th century. Great technologies, work systems, great companies rose and fell and Australia was part of that history, especially through our trade with Japan and security relationship with…
Analysis by Peter Roberts The automotive sector never died in Australia – despite the demise of the big three car assemblers we still manufacture trucks, buses and make specialist mining and defence vehicles. And where there are skills, and a market, there is a way it seems with the opportunity presented by the world’s switch…
Analysis by Peter Roberts No country can hope to have a sustainable manufacturing sector without the ability to make its own industrial machines, and Australia is no exception. Australia’s premier manufacturing and machine tools exhibitions kicked off in Melbourne today, demonstrating renewed vitality in Australian made equipment. Austech, the leading advanced manufacturing and machine tool…
While the gas crisis should arguably be a priority for whoever wins the next election, there is also room for Australian companies the help themselves. According to the International Energy Agency, Australian manufacturers are more energy-inefficient than those of any other developed nation, measured by energy per dollar of output.
