Mr Albanese opened a high tech factory Friday where the written text of his speech includes, “one of the things we learned from the pandemic is that if we’re at the end of supply chains, we’re vulnerable for global shocks that we don’t see coming”

It was a lesson learned first in WWII, when a shortage of motor vehicles and parts, led to PM Ben Chifley driving the first locally manufactured Holden off the assembly line. A point the PM likes to make.

Mr Albanese added Friday that while Australia is good at science and innovation it’s not so strong on commercialisation and “we need to make sure we back the innovators.”

Good-o, except there aren’t always backers , as Tim Cahill and Andreea Papuc Krischer (Research Strategies Australia) discovered when they looked at outcomes in advanced manufacturing research, a fave of the previous government (CMM May 9). They found that publications slowed from 2018 and that patents based on Aus publications . ““Companies … are also looking at Australian research and seeing commercial opportunities that Australian companies aren’t,” they warn.