Which is why I said if Lethe hopes to get his "Make Oz Great Again" scheme working, reverting back to leftist policy isn't going to accomplish anything. Instead, a cultural movement needs to be initiated and prolonged for future Australians to put STEM into focus. Fortunately for China, it doesn't seem like Australia is anywhere close to doing that and is, in fact, doing the exact opposite with fewer and fewer candidates enrolling in 3U and 4U HSC maths, which is the foundation of physics and engineering.
Australian heavy industry today is run by Australians educated in the 80s and 90s when maths was more appreciated, and already it's a joke. Now that STEM education in Australia is in even worse shape, what do you think Australian heavy industry will be like in the 2030s and 40s?
Germany has a strong cultural affinity for technological accomplishments due to cultural foundations set by the German Empire in the 1800s. In order to out-compete France, Germany chose to focus on industry as they couldn't compete in agriculture. Obviously, the cultural realignment worked and Germany still retains a healthy competence in heavy industry.
That's so wrong I don't know how you even got there. Australia's shipbuilding industry currently doesn't compete with East Asia because how could it? That's the whole problem; Australian shipbuilding is so bad that simply suggesting they could compete with East Asia is comical. You say that shipbuilding "is undertaken to serve the strategic interests of the nation in question" when what you really mean is Australia's shipbuilding is such a joke that the only thing they could do is serve the strategic interests of Australia, because they sure as hell aren't good enough to do anything else, like making money.
It's quite simple, really. Australia's current shipbuilding industry is like China's current aviation industry; completely mediocre and a drain on national resources. However, unlike China, Australia has the option of cutting out that parasitic sector while China cannot afford to. If China cuts off her aviation industry, no one else will provide warplanes for her in a conflict. If Australia cuts off support to Osborne, literally nothing changes except the RAN can now have twice as many warships because importing is cheaper. Australian industry will remain a joke, as it was before, but hey, at least your navy is now respectable.
You misunderstand me when I say Australia cannot sustain a shipbuilding industry. She can, but at ridiculous cost, as she is doing now. If you find the current situation satisfactory, that's your problem. Australia isn't adding anything of value to her strategic position by keeping Osborne in business. It contributes so little to Australia while taking so much. If you want for Osborne to be less of a joke, close it and reinvest the billions of dollars saved into a multi-decade long propaganda campaign, extolling the virtues of education and STEM, and ridiculing the retail and finances sector. By 2050, maybe the propaganda would've made enough of a difference such that a shipyard will open in Australia organically without government subsidies.
