Our obsessive minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen seems intent on ridding Oz of manufacturing. All unintentional mind. Collateral damage, as it were, from demolishing foul CO2-spewing coal-power stations, and marginalising and driving out its fellow pollutants oil and natural gas. Incidentally, history will thank him because it will be written current-day university graduates.

As it is, manufacturing employment has declined by about 15 percent over the past forty years according to ABS data, while employment overall has increased by about 118 percent. Recently the loss, or potential loss, of aluminium smelting, nickel refining, loo-paper and plastic manufacturing, made the news. Increasing power prices formed part of the problem facing these industries. And have no doubt, power prices are going nowhere but up as more of the “cheapest” form of energy is installed.

It’s a mistake to think of the loss of manufacturing only in economic terms. A wide range of occupations enriches society. People who work on the factory floor have a quite different work experience than people working in offices or in cafes or in hotels or in mining or in agriculture; and they bring that experience to bear in social interactions. And they remind people that consumer goods, cars and planes don’t appear from thin air. Though, I doubt the Greens would ever absorb that insight. In any event, the more variety of occupations the better.

It’s also better to have manufacturing for security reasons. Infrastructure and skills which can be easily transformed into armament manufacturing is better than trying to start from scratch. In WWII car manufacturing plants became tank manufacturing plants without much ado.

If Bowen has his way we’ll have rich enclaves of mining and agriculture with electric cars being driven by the well-heeled past empty factories. Hollowed out, like a third world country, tourism and its offshoots will become a major employer of the common people. Thus, better hope that the Great Barrier Reef doesn’t die from global warming.

Marine scientist Peter Ridd was sacked for saying that this would not happen. But what does he know? Ninety-seven percent of marine scientists, who depend for their government grants on the GBR being in its perpetual death throes, adamantly disagree.

Mind you, even with manufacturing gone Bowen will have a CO2 problem. Those scope 3 emissions are a worry. All that exporting of coal and gas will result in GHG emissions overseas for which we must bear full responsibility. Australia is the largest exporter of coal and ranks sixth in exports of LNG. I am not too sure what can be done about that. Give Australia back to the Aborigines, I suppose?

After all, as the Greens and assorted activists of genuine, very sketchy, and dubious indigenous heritage are never shy of telling us – white interlopers are living on stolen land. Not sure where the Asian, African and Middle-Eastern immigrants and their descendants stand? Let’s ask Linda Burney. She seems smart.