As part of its latest bottom-cleaning exercise the Australian government has turned from its original course of cutting $500 million from a package to prop up the car industry. Instead it has guaranteed the continuance of almost $1 billion in funding to the industry.

Yes, that industry, which is leaving these shores in 2017 and drew an estimated $150 million in export revenue.

Is this an opportunity lost? Could that money have been put to better use investing in Australia’s mining equipment, technology and services sector? The same industry that one estimate has potentially having exports worth $80 billion by 2020. Again, you would have to say yes.

The METS and the agricultural services sectors are about the only two areas in which Australia actually holds a competitive advantage.

Instead, for the purpose of popularity, the government chose to continue propping up an industry that is on its way out.

It should be said that the government has not ignored the METS sector. On February 17 Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane announced the chairs for three Industry growth centres.

One of those centres is focused on the METS market and will be chaired by Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, who, along with her husband Sandy Gray, founded mineral processing technology specialist Gekko.

Lewis-Gray’s appointment is a fine choice. She has a strong history in the METS sector as both a participant and an advocate for it.

The government is also putting in some seed funding – about $2 to $3 million, Australia’s Mining Monthly has been told.

So a sector that could draw $80 billion in exports to Australia by 2020 gets $3 million, while an industry that is leaving in two years and has exports worth about $150 million gets almost $1 billion in government funding.

A spokeswoman for Macfarlane said this was not an opportunity lost.

She said this was “the process of transitioning manufacturing and Australian industry to a new era” and that included “identifying new markets through enhanced collaboration between business and research such as in the METS sector and supporting the transition, particularly in the regions and businesses that have been heavily reliant on traditional industries such as automotive manufacturing”

In short, votes. If the car makers decide to pack up early, that is quite a few job losses. Those job losses will mostly be in Victoria and South Australia – two states where the federal government seems to be particularly on the nose with the electorate.

These Industry Growth Centres’ of which the government speaks are designed to develop a link between industry and researchers.

According to the announcement that named Lewis-Gray as the chair of the METS growth centre, Macfarlane expects to have three growth centres up and running by the middle of this year.

The METS centre is to be one of those.

“The Australian government is providing industry with an opportunity to face its challenges, take the lead and grow in areas of our economic strengths,” Macfarlane said.

“The $188.5 million Industry Growth Centres Initiative will establish five growth centres in key growth sectors: advanced manufacturing; food and agribusiness; medical technologies and pharmaceuticals; METS; and oil, gas and energy resources.

“They will set strategies and deliver outcomes under the four themes of encouraging collaboration and commercialisation, enhancing workforce skills, identifying opportunities to reduce regulatory burden, and improving capabilities to engage with international markets.”

Well on that last point, the METS sector is already engaging with international markets and doing it quite well.

Indeed it has been doing it brilliantly for quite some time.

Australia claims a connection to the flotation systems that are used in mineral processing these days.

What Gekko is doing with that is simply taking that further.

Caterpillar did not have an underground truck and loader offering until one of its former dealer mechanics – one Dale Elphinstone – created it for them.

There was the Top Sealed Lance smelting technology developed by Ausmelt that made huge leaps in the processing of metals.

Sadly, though, despite the innovation shown in these developments, it is other companies from other countries that are taking it further.

Elphinstone sold his share in the Cat underground business to Cat. Ausmelt was gobbled up by Outotec. There are many more examples where Australian ingenuity has struggled because it could not get the funding it needed to go to the next stage.

Here is where government funds could come in handy.

Could the $500 million tipped into the car industry have helped with this. You bet. It would certainly be a start.

Could the METS sector offer an alternative employment source for those who will lose their jobs when the car industry leaves?

You would have to say it could but this does seem like an opportunity lost.