Keeping Tomago open is not just about one smelter. It is a test of whether Australia is prepared to invest strategically in manufacturing, energy and industrial capability.

Economists have a curious habit in Australia of calling for increased productivity and economic diversification, only to then cry foul over any government intervention to promote innovative ideas and technologies, let alone ‘prop up’ existing industrial assets.

We want to be a nation that makes things, yet mainstream policy advisers balk at investing in the very industrial ecosystems that ensure manufacturers can survive and expand on our shores. When it comes to the future of Tomago – Australia’s largest aluminium smelter – this contradictory argument is well and truly alive.

We have heard plenty in recent months about the fiscal ‘cost’ of saving Tomago. But there has been far less focus on the cost of inaction, or the benefits of creating a blueprint for how we can invest in the future of our manufacturing base wisely, efficiently and strategically to ensure the taxpayer receives genuine upside.

First, consider the cost of doing nothing. Australia remains overwhelmingly reliant on exporting unprocessed raw materials to drive growth. We are effectively sustaining a first-world lifestyle with a third-world trade and industrial structure.

Australia currently ranks 74th on the Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity because of our abject failure to move up the global value chain. Our manufacturing capacity has plummeted........

© Pearls and Irritations