Former Chairman of The Dow Chemical Company, Andrew Liveris AO spoke about Australia’s opportunity for manufacture expansion during a National Press Club address Wednesday afternoon.

Known globally for advocating the criticality of manufacturing worldwide, Liveris spoke about Australia’s need to diversify their manufacturing strategy, urging that the country has to be a “leader” in the global market.

The Greek Australian businessman argued that the first step in this plan is the transition from coal to gas as part of its energy transition.

“I know that’s not a popular thing to say in some parts of the political establishment,” he says. “But unless you do carbon sequestration, you need to find way to get gas into the mix.”

“I warned that we were going to kill our manufacturing sector if we exported all of our gas as LNG,” he says. “Well, we almost got there. We almost killed it all. We have rendered our natural gas supply as unreliable, inaccessible.”

“We can’t get massive amounts of gas in the basins around the country to market because we have limited infrastructure. It’s like buying airplanes and having no airports. Where do you land?”

Liveris recommended four objectives for Australia in pursuit of a sustainable economy.

1. Build a manufacturing centre with technological capabilities worthy for the 21st century.

2. Diversify economic interests.

3. Invest in sustainable technologies and investment centre.

4. Restructure and reset skill base of Australian citizens.

Financial Review‘s political editor Phil Coorey asked Mr Liveris about Australia’s relationship with China, and whether the government may need to temper its public comments towards Beijing in the interests of the economic relationship.

“I never put myself in the position of a leader of a country because that’s a hard job. I’ve been around a lot of leaders. It is a difficult balancing act, in terms of what your population needs to hear, versus the competing positions of a different country,” Mr Liveris says.

“If you look at environmental standards, labour standards, all the thing we care about, we should set the highest bar. Code of conduct should be the highest bar.

“Whether other countries respond to that, it’s their choice but I don’t believe we should necessarily call them out on that. I think we should actually spend our time trying to help them if they want to be helped.”

Fears have been sparked by nurses sent in to help Melbourne’s coronavirus-ravaged aged care facilities who claim that aged care residents are on the verge of giving up due to COVID-19 isolation procedures.

Speaking on ABC 7:30 Tuesday night, Western Health Clinical Nursing Consultant Shane Durance said he fears there will be a long tail of ongoing deaths in nursing homes due to the pandemic, unrelated to COVID-19 infections.

“We’ve got people who aren’t COVID-positive, whose mood is severely depressed, who are not eating well, who are not drinking adequately, who are prominently locked in their rooms, not able to go out for any activities, no leisure activities, and their mobility is declining and their mood is declining,” he told 7.30.

“And for someone who’s already elderly, already has a mood disorder, already is mildly malnourished — it’s very hard to come back from that.”

Mr Durance says aside from the devastating effects of the virus, isolation is bringing even more detrimental effects to patients mental and physical wellbeing.

“It affects their mood. It affects their desire to eat, their desire to drink,” he said.

“They go to bed, they stop walking, progressively they lose the ability to walk.

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“My concern is that, although the death rates in residential care patients will start to slow, then we’ll see a very long tail of ongoing death rates.

“And they won’t be attributed to COVID and they’ll drop off the front page of the newspapers.”

Mr Durance said he feared governments and the broader public would lose sight of the issue and would fail to properly review what went wrong.

Mary-Louise McLaws from the World Health Organisation’s Experts Advisory Panel predicted that a quarter of Victorian aged care cases will die from COVID-19. The health expert says the public should remain vigilant, as the aged-care death toll is likely rise. 

“It will continue sadly because Victoria has had a very large number of aged care cases and I expect at least a quarter of them to die,” she said.

NSW Labor is urging the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Rob Stokes, to fast-track a plan for Sydney’s after-dark economy as businesses struggle to recover from lockouts and lockdowns.

Labor Shadow Minister for Better Public Services Sophie Cotsis said a roadmap detailing the next steps is crucial.

“Labor has been calling for more to be done in Sydney at night since the election,” Ms Cotsis said.

“Safety must be the priority for patrons and staff. Hospitality businesses are working very hard to ensure they stay open, provide opportunities to staff and of keep their doors open to trade in a safe environment.

“Hospitality businesses have faced months of confusion and chaos because of this Government. As we look to revitalise Sydney, they need certainty and confidence.”

The Shadow Minister for Music and the Night Time Economy, John Graham said: “My fear is this is an old set of answers to an old set of problems. The impact of the lockdown on night time businesses and jobs has swamped the previous impacts of the lockouts.”

Mr Graham said the proposals, which include longer opening hours, more outdoor dining, fewer restrictions on live performances and late night public transport must be rolled out urgently.

“Mr Stokes needs to use his ministerial powers to keep entertainment and hospitality workers in jobs by supporting outdoor dining and performance and later trading. These are the same powers he used to keep truckies in work, delivering to supermarkets – or tradies in the construction business. Now they should be applied to support musicians and hospitality workers,” Mr Graham said.

“This sector needs financial support. These businesses are drowning in the face of an economic tidal wave. There is no fiscal life boat from the Government.”