By international standards, Australians get paid a lot of money but they all want to buy cheap stuff so it gets imported. Think about it, if Aussie manufactured stuff is too expensive for us to buy then who else is going to buy it. If it can't be sold then it won't be made and some overpaid Australians will become unpaid Australians. They will put pressure on the ones that still have jobs and wages will come back until we become competitive internationally.
The problem with our manufacturing is not that it is inefficient, the problem is that an Australian on $30/hr only does the same work as an American on $10/hr. There's your inefficiency for you. By Brick's logic you'd fuck the Aussie off and get an Indonesian to do the work for $6 but try it and listen to the country carry on. That's exactly what our manufacturing is doing they just have to go offshore to do it.