In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on 10 September, Kevin Rudd claimed that “Australia needs a robust industry policy for its economic future” and proposed, “seven sectors where government and industry should collaborate to foster world-class companies – each sector primed to make the most of AI-driven productivity growth”.

These were AI, biotechnology, renewable energy, critical minerals and rare earths, defence industry, the automotive sector, and finance. Rudd says that each sector would “have a tailored set of tax, regulatory, policy and permitting incentives – commonwealth, state and local”.

Going in reverse order – I do know quite a bit about his push for government intervention to make Sydney the “financial services capital of the Indo-Pacific within a decade”. I worked in China in 2014 and 2015 for the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics” where I looked at conditions needed for a top-ranked international financial center (IFC).

Much of my research can be read at: https://shanghai-ifc.org/

In my view there is no prospect of Sydney becoming the “financial services capital of the Indo-Pacific.

The strangest Rudd suggestion is for a revitalised car manufacturing industry. Rudd said that its loss tore the “beating heart out of Australia’s engineering and manufacturing base, and rendering us 100% dependent on auto imports”. He claims: “Now the 3D printing and EV revolutions mean we can rebuild an Australian auto sector and repair this fatal vulnerability in our national security.”

While there may be some concerns about software on Chinese made cars, the fact is that auto manufacturing costs depend on scale and 3D printing is not useful for high-volume output. It is also unclear what advantage Australian car manufacturing would have because of the “EV revolution” other than it has no legacy internal combustion engine manufacturing facilities to be written off.

I suspect that his car industry push has some connection to his “defence industry” advocacy and AUKUS. In his simple mind, more people with auto-level welding skills means more people to be up-trained to handle welding the hull of a nuclear submarine. He may not know that such welding in Chinese plants is done by robots.

I am all for boosting Australia’s defence industries, but it needs to be intelligently selective. I have not been able to identify one “independent” (ie no financial, political or career) “expert” who believes that it is possible to build AUKUS submarines in Adelaide.

I know little about AI or biotechnology and I understand the push on “critical minerals and rare earths” – so, this leaves “renewable energy”. While there are some proposals for electricity to be exported from northern Australia, this would seem to leave an idea that Australia should be manufacturing solar panels, wind-mills etc. Once again, China has a head start and markets which Australia could never compete with.