The Government’s foreshadowed bill for a “Future Made in Australia” has been met with two very different kinds of response, one positive, welcoming the prospect of initiatives from the Government to support and promote investment in forward-leaning projects and the “industries of the future”, the other negative, saying that governments should stay out of private sectors’ business, risk creating distortions if they don’t, and in Australia’s case that we shouldn’t try to compete with much bigger countries like the US and China, able to swamp any subsidies we might give our industries.

From the op-ed by the Treasurer in “The Australian” of 17 April it appears that the Government is not going to be put off by the criticism of possible market distortion, and believes it has a more sophisticated perception of what it is planning to do, that makes sense—“incentivising the private sector, not replacing it”. To use a phrase used recently by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida during his visit to the US, the Government will “boldly go” along........

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