My suggestion of choosing Tassie as an aluminium manufacturing hub was 3 fold: -It has bauxite -It has excess hydro electricity (Green Electricity) -It has oodles of water.
"The island of Tasmania is the smallest of Australia’s states with a total land size of approximately 68,000 km2. Though it is less than 1% of Australia’s surface area the region contains about 12% of Australia’s freshwater resources. It is separated from the Australian mainland by Bass Strait." (bom.gov.au)
But of course, you are in the majority....thats why we just about import everything manufactured now (mostly from China) and export bugger all manufactured goods on the mistaken notion that doing nothing here except consuming saves the planet.
We have snookered ourselves politically and economically by first outlawing the BRI, declaring China as our biggest enemy and then hinting that we'd go to war against China over a silly Taiwan which we recognised in the early 1970s as an integral part of China.
China has already fired a trade shot across our bow and we are too dense to realise the economic consequences unless we pull out a finger and get on with diversifying trade away from China rather than "she'll be right" wishful waiting.
35% of our exports and 35% of our exports rely on China at present; our biggest enemy!!!! how stupid is that...eh and better still, what is your "gig" solution? AI?
Virtually all of "our" current AI hardware comes from China now so what if the US bungs Russian Economic Sanctions on China in say 2025? We'll have the ass out of our pants (metaphorically) within a year and will our "friend" Uncle Sam care?
