The Albanese government has committed $2.5 billion to keep Rio Tinto's Tomago aluminium smelter operating near Newcastle, protecting 1000 jobs at a cost of $2.5 million per position, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The figure exceeds support for other ageing industrial facilities, including a $240 million zinc and lead smelter bailout in South Australia and Tasmania, a $600 million Mount Isa copper smelter package, and a $2 billion Gladstone aluminium smelter support scheme.

The government frames the Tomago support as critical to Australia's clean energy transition, arguing that keeping smelters operational allows them to be modernised and made environmentally sustainable, securing domestic supply of materials essential to battery production. Without the bailout, the Herald notes, Australia would rely on smelters in China and other nations for these materials.

The investment contrasts sharply with the government's approach to artificial intelligence disruption, which it predicts will eventually cause major job losses. The government's AI policy relies on an office within the Prime Minister's department with no new laws or dedicated regulator, the Herald reports.