Australian Sovereign Capability and Supply Chain Resilience: Perspectives and Options

The COVID-19 pandemic has led many nations to ask whether and in what domains, a greater degree of self-sufficiency should become an explicit national goal. These concerns with sovereign capability are especially prominent for Australia, which has deindustrialised over the past quarter century making it more vulnerable to supply chain shocks at a time of global crisis. It should be of great concern to policymakers that Australia has the highest dependency on manufactured imports - and the lowest level of manufacturing self-sufficiency - of any OECD country, leading to serious deficits in Australia’s sovereign capabilities...