I have been advocating that for the past 20 years buy, IMO, that kind of infrastructure wont do it for Aus because: -We ahe left the mining of Iron Ore & Coals to the market and that has failed the average Aussie because 86% of our mines are now foreign owned with the profits going overseas.
All we have left is employment (jobs) which are rapidly decreasing because of automation & China pulling the plug on further mine development and related infrastructure because we rejected its BRI project & sided with the USA in the Trump anti-China campaign.
We are seeing the oil companies now closing down their Aussie refineries and Multinational Aluminium smelters about to fold up (The Qld Government gave the Boyne Island Smelter in Gladstone a temporary lifeline to get it out of the Qld Election but my bet is that it will fold in 2021.)
We also saw the auto manufacturing fold , first Mitsubishi in 2007 & Ford, GM & Toyota in 2016. So, IMO, we need a different export industrial model if we expect to compete favourable with global players: otherwise we have to scrap our FTAs and revert to the protectionist policies of the 60s & 70s and manufacture for domestic consumption & replace imports. This is what the USA is hinting at now.
Our Liberal Governments have been at the beck & call of the national Party/LNP with respect to trade & export policies where most of our FTAs to date have been done to benefit farmers at the cost of manufacturing. The demise of our manufacturing since the mod zeros (first FTAs) is evidence of that, IMO.
If we examine why our oil refineries & aluminium refineries are now folding , it is balatently evident that these operations are incapable of competing with import products many of which are from our FTA partners with the goods and services produced in SEZs. Although Saudi Arabia is not a FTA partner, its products are refined in SEZs with guest labour and its diesel & petroleum products does not attract Aussie import duty; just the usual fuel excise & GST which also applies to our Aussie refined oil products.
With the real prospect of the USA imposing full economic sanctions on China and blocking Chinese shipping in the Starits of Malacca , we are exposing ourselves to a fuel security risk which many would say is a National Security risk.
So what is the solution?
IMO , SEZs should come before the Northern E/W railway and once we establish steel manufacture on a global scale and conquest a reasonable share of that , then we can up the profits by adding the E/W railway.
We hare finding : $300 Billion to counter the short term effects of Covid/China Recession $100 billion to compensate for the Drought & Fires $300 Billion to buy warships, war aircraft, subs and ammo.
Half of that would build 2 mega Steel Smelters/Mills with associated infrastructure including 2 X SEZs. This would secure our economic independance and by implication our soverign independance.
The Ord River Scheme proved that Government infrastructure alone (in this case dams) wont do it; it requires a well designed/researched industrial plan to counter our weaknesses, use our strengths, tap global opportunities with a well reasoned and executed risk management regime.
