When you have a big empty factory you no longer need, you try and flog it. Perhaps the true story actually was, the factory was offered to Boeing - not that Boeing expressed any interest in it, first.
Industrial manufacturing in Australia is dead. No-one in their right mind would manufacture here, simply because there's no advantage whatsoever, due to the ability of so many other nations that offer much cheaper workforces, more manufacturing incentives, and a larger local market for the product as well.
What Australia is good at, is high tech production of cutting edge technologies, advanced research, and innovation.
The current Liberal Govt shows up their paucity of intellect by cutting funding to the CSIRO, which is our greatest national asset.
The funding to the CSIRO needs to be doubled, to find and develop new technologies and new products, that the world clamours for.
Typically, the CSIRO has researched the use of super-capacitors to provide the needed boost for power spurts for electric vehicles. These super-capacitors could be the breakthrough that's needed to make electric-powered vehicles and perhaps even electric-powered aircraft, a viable proposition.
However, the current Govt is more interested in penny-pinching and providing big business with huge tax breaks and road-building jobs, rather than investing in crucial technical research for the future.