Australia's manufacturing industry is the country's largest export earner, with annual exports exceeding A$60 billion - since 2000, export growth has continued at an average of 4% each year. The automotive industry, for example, generated a 14% increase in exports during 2005, reaching an all-time high of A$3.5 billion.

Manufacturing is also one of Australia's greatest sources of innovation, undertaking almost half of the nation's research and development driven by well-trained mechanical engineers from throughout the nation. Emerging technologies from Australia's world-class ICT sector increasingly intersect with advanced manufacturing processes, and high-tech manufactured goods are changing the old image of an Australia living off 'rocks and crops'. Technologically advanced and globally competitive, the manufacturing sector now employs more than a million Australians.