This inquiry was held as Australia stood at a generational crossroads in its industrial and economic development. During the inquiry, the Committee heard from a broad range of industry participants on the opportunities and challenges that face Australian manufacturing.

Many of the challenges are not new. The previous decade of industrial policy has seen sustained attention and expenditure on Australia’s challenges in research and development and innovation performance.

Australia requires a substantial industrial transformation to transition simultaneously to net zero and Industry 4.0. At the same time, the current pace of the global transition to net zero has created a time-limited opportunity for Australia to capture market share in lucrative renewable energy value chains, and to respond to the growing risk to the carbon-intensive sectors that have been the mainstays of Australian exports and revenue.

Advanced manufacturing offers both technologies and ways of thinking to support this transformation. It is doubtful if Australia can successfully navigate the current transition without taking up advanced manufacturing’s advantages for efficiency, productivity, cost-competitiveness and resilience.

Report structure:

• Chapter 1 introduces advanced manufacturing as a concept, outlines its place in Australian industry policy over the past decade, and gives a summary of its benefits.
• Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Australian and international manufacturing landscape, including the advantages and disadvantages facing Australian manufacturers.
• Chapter 3 discusses financial issues affecting the development of advanced manufacturing in Australia, and opportunities for governments to use financial levers to foster manufacturing.
• Chapter 4 discusses ongoing challenges commercialising Australian R&D, including through greater collaboration between industry and the research sector. It particularly focuses on manufacturers’ experiences with policy interventions to date, and how governments might improve on these.
• Chapter 5 talks about the need for a skilled, diverse manufacturing workforce and small business capability uplift.
• Chapter 6 summarises insights into specific sectors and technologies at the focus of current government policy, with a view to informing the implementation of initiatives such as the NRF and sector-specific growth strategies.