lf they can stimulate new businesses and new industry so that we value add in the areas such as the battery and solar panel supply chains then it would absolutely make sense to invest in the education side as well.
One goes in hand with the other.
The solar technology that was developed at UNSW is the perfect example. Technology that is used in more than 80% of solar panels world wide. Panels that are made overseas from dust dug out of the ground from here. We should have maximised that education investment . We didn't.
Anything we can do to move up that food chain is good for Australia. A better educated country with more technical and manufacturing expertise is the goal. Countries like Germany come to mind.
The global renewable energy boom is only just starting . lt will take decades for all the required infrastructure to be built.
Australia is in the box seat imo. We have most of the materials the world will need. We have the ability to manufacture or further process much of those materials using clean energy . By processing those materials here we also get a massive emissions bonus from reducing the need to ship dirt around the world. These are huge competitive advantages for us.
We may not be able to make everything here competitively such as solar panels but we certainly can process a lot more of the materials here.
Labor is playing the long game here. The world is transitioning to clean energy whether people like it or not and the demand is enormous. We have the opportunity to be an important player rather than just a mine and ride this wave all the way.
lt has been a long time since l've seen a political party invest in a long term vision for Australia. Clearly we need to learn more about the detail before we get too excited but it sounds like a hell of a good start.
