Investment management company Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has begun the development phase of a proposed $3.5 billion Green Iron Project in Gladstone, Queensland. Quinbrook has partnered with Central Queensland Metals which holds the exploration permits for what is the largest known magnetite deposit in Queensland – magnetite is a type of iron ore suited to direct…
By Peter Roberts If @AuManufacturing’s editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – has taught us anything, it is not the national myth of plucky Australians being an inventive people battling to commercialise their ideas. Towards 3% has taught us that unlike leading nations, Australia doesn’t have a supportive innovation ecosystem…
A loss of sovereign control of industry is a key issue raised in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – Here, Allen Roberts examines innovation in the critical food manufacturing sector. The recent declaration of ‘A Future Made in Australia’ by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has put the…
By Peter Roberts If a plethora of ambitious programmes and many, many billions of dollars are all that it takes to reverse manufacturing’s long term slide, then Jim Chalmers budget 2024 delivered tonight has made a welcome start on setting the $124 billion sector up for a new period of expansion. While headlines were the…
As we come towards the end of our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – Professor Cori Stewart Founder and CEO ARM Hub explains the importance of commercialising hubs in turning research into economic outcomes. For the past two decades the capability generated by Australian R&D funding and the capability…
A new report from independent think tank Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) has backed the direct support for industry being proposed for the federal government’s Future Made in Australia policy initiative. The report – Make it here: building Australia’s clean industrial future – calls for decisive action to best harness Australia’s abundant and raw minerals, and…
The federal government has placed a $30 million order with Queensland-based Craig International Ballistics for body armour that will be used by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, including in combat and counter terrorism operations. The contract, which will also create and sustain dozens of jobs, supports local small-and-medium enterprises and a future made in Australia,…
Australia’s R&D effort is focused around medical technologies and here in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – Dig Howitt of Cochlear outlines the way ahead to support innovation in the sector. Cochlear has long been a pioneer in innovation. It has reshaped hearing technology and made substantial contributions…
By Peter Roberts Defence Minister Richard Marles is comfortable with the possibility of Australia’s most successful locally owned defence manufacturer, Austal, falling to overseas ownership. I, for one, am not. In April Korean defence group Hanwha bid to buy Austal, emerging into the open after months of speculation that the company was a takeover target.…
Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – we turn to the role of national industry policy. Here Roy Green points to innovation and the success of a Future Made in Australia as intertwined. While lacking detail at this stage, the significance of Prime Minister Albanese’s Future Made…