The engine plant was not only producing Magna engines, but aluminium heads for export to Japan for a wide range of Mitsubishi models.

Our guide proudly explained that Australia produced the cheapest aluminium in the world because we mined the bauxite and had cheap electricity.

When I returned to the factory in 2004 to do a report on the new Mitsubishi 380, I asked a senior engineer why the engine plant had been closed.

“Electricity supply,” was his answer.

“South Australia has always depended on importing electricity, but growing energy demands in Victoria were using all their own power plus most of the power from the submarine cable linked to Tasmania’s hydro plants.

"With future supplies of cheap power from the grid in doubt, the Mitsubishi engine plant faced the possibility of having to generate its own power, thereby removing its export advantage, so the decision was made to close the plant.”

Within the next couple of years the rising Australian dollar choked exports and killed local sales, so the whole Mitsubishi factory was closed. The rest of Australian industry could soon go the same way.

Can anybody explain to me how closing Australia’s aluminium production and sending our bauxite to China for processing with cheap electricity produced from Australian coal can help reduce global warming?

Why aren’t we opening brand new, efficient, coal-fired power stations in Australia, just like they’re doing in China, and smelting our aluminium here, without the emissions created by shipping large quantities of raw materials thousands of kilometres?

Doesn’t shipping contribute to greenhouse gases?

It’s not just your electricity bill that is suffering from the Green tail wagging the Australian dog.

Japan has pulled out of Kyoto, and any future greenhouse plans, and is reverting to fossil fuels now that its aged nuclear plants have fallen into disfavour.

Canada has led the way in saying that it will not introduce carbon taxes or an ETS. America will never enter agreements that nobble its industries.

China needs cheap coal-fired electricity, so its token $1.50 carbon tax is merely to placate the Eurozone while they build their nuclear plants.

As John Pizzey, chairman of aluminium smelting company Alumina said last week, the development of the Australian industry in the 1960s was due to the plentiful supply of cheap coal-fired power, just as is happening in China right now.

Your electricity bill, and the future of Australian industry, depends on cheap power. Coal is still the way to go.

Solar and wind are neither cheap nor available 24 hours a day.

New generation coal-fired power stations are needed now, to save Australian jobs, and reduce our electricity bills.