Australia’s expenditure on innovation public and private has fallen for the past decade, and continues to fall under the new federal government. Business expenditure on research and development (BERD) was up 14 per cent over 2021-22, new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show, though the nation’s total spend on R&D as a proportion of GDP…
A review of the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy is underway, led by the federal department of infrastructure in collaboration with industry and state and territory governments. According to a statement from federal infrastructure minister Catherine King on Thursday, the strategy is a “holistic, coordinated and multi-modal approach to increase the safety, productivity and…
University of Wollongong spinout business Hysata officially opened its new 8,000 square metre global headquarters and factory in Port Kembla and was awarded over $23 million in government support on Monday as it progresses its high-efficiency electrolyser towards commercialisation. The company, which closed a $42.5 million Series A round in August last year, said it…
The eight-member board of the National Reconstruction Fund, the federal government’s signature manufacturing program, has been announced, with Founding Director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Martijn Wilder as its Chair. In a statement on Wednesday, industry minister Ed Husic said the experience of the independent board – which will make investment decisions for the…
In recent days @AuManufacturing readers have critiqued federal governments efforts to ‘reform the Productivity Commission (see below). Here in our final part of a series, Tim Buckley argues Australia cannot afford more of the same from the PC, which continued to misread profound societal and economic change underway globally. Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ announcement yesterday of…
By Peter Roberts The Treasurer Jim Chalmers has opted for gradualist reform of the much criticised Productivity Commission, appointing a former Labor Party staffer to be the commission’s new chair. Chalmers appointed Chris Barrett (pictured) as the new Chair and said ‘to build a stronger economy, we need to build stronger economic institutions – and…
Public hearings for the inquiry on developing advanced manufacturing in Australia will be held on Tuesday at 9:00 am in Brisbane, examining the health, robotics and space sectors. According to a statement on Monday, the House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Resources will hear from stakeholders representing those sectors on “what is needed to…
This week’s report from the Productivity Commission targeted Australia’s energy policies as a form of industry assistance – anathema to the dry economic policy group. Here, Roy Green finds the Commission out of touch with Australia’s needs. This is another tiresomely predictable and formulaic report from the Productivity Commission. Ironically it takes issue with the…
Applications opened on Tuesday morning for the Plastics Technology stream of the federal Recycling Modernisation Fund, offering grant funding of between $1 million and $20 million each to projects concerned with hard-to-recycle plastics. According to a statement from federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek, up to $60 million in total would support projects including: advanced recycling…
Support for 32 projects under the National Industry PhD Program has been announced, with $5 million awarded to industry-based projects in materials engineering, biomedical engineering and other research fields. According to assistant education minister Anthony Chisholm, who announced the funded projects on Monday, these would “enhance the world-class research being undertaken” in universities as well…
