Australia’s manufacturing sector is ready for a renaissance, according to the nation’s foremost political commentator, Rufus Badinage, who writes exclusively and very occasionally for The Bug.

Last week – as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese laid out his vision for an expanded Australian manufacturing sector – news broke confirming that our country can indeed perform alongside bigger nations when it comes to making the critical products needed to sustain a growing global population while underpinning our economy and local jobs.

This is an issue I have explored in my columns numerous times and I can attest that, as a key adviser to governments of all political colours over many decades, it is one that has exercised the minds of all of our nation’s leaders.

I have previously recalled for readers of The Bug my experience while working for our nation’s longest-serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, who also saw the need for a viable and vibrant manufacturing sector.

During my time on Sir Robert’s personal staff from in the late 1950s until his retirement in 1966 – on secondment from my substantive position as assistant under-secretary for vermin control in the then Commonwealth Department of Invasive Pests, Aboriginal Affairs, and the Arts – I was very much aware of his desire to promote local manufacturing.

In fact Menzies – founder of the modern Liberal Party – was motivated by a former Labor PM. He confided to me that he had always envied Ben Chifley’s involvement in the launch of the Holden motor vehicle in 1948. (below).

One of the few regrets in my long career of public service was my failure to secure a “bookend” photo of former Liberal federal treasurer Joe Hockey standing next to the last Holden ever made in Australia.

At the time Holden was shutting its last factory I suggested the idea to Mr Hockey whose office rejected it in what was, shall we say, a very curt reply. But I digress.

Sir Robert desperately wanted to do what Chifley had done and as one of the senior members on his personal staff it was my task to make it happen.

At the time, in the early 1960s, there were several local businesses trying to compete in the car-making sector against big names such as General Motors-Holden, Ford, and Chrysler. The Japanese manufacturers had gained a foothold in the local market but were yet to make their presence felt.

I did succeed in having Menzies photographed at the Adelaide factory of Lightburn & Co where the company, better known for its washing machines, was turning out a little car called the Zeta.

Sir Robert was keen on the idea of a photograph, but because the Zeta had – shall we say – a unique look about it, the end result (below) never had the same iconic feel as Chifley’s iconic effort.

Putting the PM behind the wheel of a Zeta Sports model was even less satisfactory. (main picture)

Despite Mr Albanese’s optimistic words about our manufacturing skills and goals, it is not likely we will see a return to local production of motor cars, but there are other potentially lucrative opportunities.

A few years back I wrote about the efforts of a small Adelaide-based confectionery company that had secured the rights to once again make the popular Polly Waffle, a product discontinued in the Australian market by the global Nestle company in 2009.

Now, in the same week as the PM’s vision for manufacturing was unveiled, we saw confirmation that the Adelaide firm’s effort would see the Polly Waffle return to shop shelves across our nation. (below)

This is cause for celebration because the return of this delectable treat shows our diversified manufacturing sector is not at all dead and buried as some might have us believe.

Now is the time for real action and for politicians like Mr Albanese to “put their money where their mouth is” and get behind these type of manufacturers with government grants, if needed, to ensure their success.

The so-called “giants” of manufacturing – China, Germany, South Korea, and the USA among them – might make cutting-edge IT software and hardware, life-saving medical technology devices, innovative electric vehicles, clean and renewable energy plants and equipment, and highly sophisticated aircraft and even spacecraft.

But the Polly Waffle’s return proves that Australia can still aspire to rank among those manufacturing giants.

As I have noted previously, as long as a small Australian firm has the technological know-how to inject extruded stabilised and preserved marshmallow into a baked wafer tube and then coat it with chocolate and wrap it in printed foil – all with sufficient additives to ensure a long shelf-life – then there is great hope for the future of manufacturing in this nation of ours.

I’m sure Mr Albanese can’t wait to see Polly Waffles back on the shelves and if he and his minders have any sense then he will be photographed, Chifley-style, welcoming the first one off the production line as a symbol of what Australian manufacturing has to offer the world.

Rufus Badinage MBE, now retired, is one of Australia’s leading experts on politics and public administration having worked as a senior bureaucrat for various state and federal governments.

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