Australia is a continent & all continents should have a manufacturing sector, ideally the manufacturing sectors should be located in Australia's major cities due to their close proximity to ports & rail infrastructure, like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, perhaps Hobart also needs a manufacturing sector. When you import goods from overseas you use alot of valuable energy resources, energy resources which should be conserved for future generations. Yes they say manufacturing should compete on a global scale but a more energy efficient form would be to say that manufacturing should compete on a continental scale so as to omit the over use of energy resources when you transport goods overseas on ships.
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/11/28/why-global-trade-is-not-working
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/08/07/australian-engineering-a-lost-cause
