Governments of all persuasions give money (billions of $'s) to...

Governments of all persuasions give money (billions of $'s) to businesses via grants all the time - like ALL THE TIME - what on earth are you talking about it being 'propped up', the money is to improve the PPF. Grants are often given to best-in-class companies involved in new industries seen as important to Australia's interests.

Look at the bigger picture here and see how the people of Gladstone will benefit from a successful A4N. Gladstone gets a bigger pie, more direct and indirect jobs for the area, a new industry for Australia - a prosperous better standard of living for the community and all involved. A4N still does all the heavy lifting, but the government lends a hand and gets the money back in absolute spades later on via tax revenue. Or maybe they should just hand out $60m to the people of Gladstone and tell them not to spend it all at once.

As for picking winners, there is no other HPA player anywhere near production, so there is only one to choose from. Who's closest? May be FYI, but Alcoa isn't going to dive into a 40,000tpa global industry until it's at least double or maybe even three times that number.
I don't trust politicians of any persuasion to make decent decisions about anything, but they've only got one choice here, so that's lucky for A4N.

I think you are way off the mark here.