Originally published by Stewart Oldfield of The Australian
25.03.2026
National economic resilience is back in the headlines but it is not just our reliance on imported fuel that needs to keep our policymakers up at night.
Australia is all in when it comes to enjoying the benefits of a globalised economy – logical when you are living on an eight million square kilometre island at the bottom of the world with the same population as just one Chinese city – Guangzhou.
But it also means that we are at the mercy of global supply chains, and those supply chains are under increasing stress.
Yes, Australia is world-leading when it comes to the production of a handful of lucrative goods and services such as iron ore, crayfish, international education, bankable soapie stars, radiology software and even maybe regulation.
But, of course, there are vastly more categories in the rich tapestry of our global trading on which we have become dependent and which we are no longer capable of producing ourselves.
It’s good that we still produce toilet paper, caravans and a few bull bars but for how long will we still have a handful of local sock manufacturers in the age of Amazon and AliExpress.
It is great that at the height of the Covid pandemic we could boast that we produce enough food to feed our population three times over. But these days we are dependent on far more than what is on our kids’ dinner plates.
We are very much a price taker in most of the goods and services that we source from overseas, and that is about to get more painful.
Anyone who is processing invoices from the likes of Microsoft and Google knows about the relentless price rises.
And anyone who thinks import-dependence is old news, take a look at the number of everyday locally made consumables that have been crowded out on supermarket shelves by home-branded imports as supermarkets have looked to boost their profit margins in recent times. Floss, toothpaste, Japanese-styled dumplings, even shoe polish.
Guess where most of our shiny new electric buses, a beacon of our new economy, are made. (Hint: it isn’t Sweden.) Oceania Glass, Australia’s last dedicated manufacturer of architectural float glass, entered administration in February 2025.
PTT Group, Thailand’s national petroleum and petrochemical company, is winding down its Allnex resins production plant in Sydney’s Botany Bay ahead of an eventual exit.
The move by Allnex follows the collapse of Qenos, Australia’s largest plastics manufacturer.
Qenos made ethylene and polyethylene – the key building blocks for a multitude of plastic household, industrial and packaging products – and specialty polymers.
The ripple effects are still working their way through industry. These developments don’t attract the headlines, unlike the he-said, she-said noise produced by the Canberra press gallery, because it is not in many people’s interest to talk about the demise of another industry.
Meanwhile, Amazon is heavily expanding its Australian distribution network around the country and ALDI is building a $1bn automated distribution centre in Western Sydney, expected to be operational around 2030.
The 90,000sq m facility, located near the new Western Sydney Airport, will serve more than 200 stores.
Despite ranking as the world’s ninth-richest economy per capita, Australia’s economy ranked 105th out of 145 countries on the latest Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity, which measures the diversity and knowledge intensity of a country’s export mix.
Australia ranked behind Bangladesh (100) and Senegal (101), and the lowest in the OECD. The ranking suggests that Australia has become one of the least self-sufficient and sophisticated economies in the world.
Is there an easy solution to this relentless hollowing out of the Australian economy? No.
The Albanese government is pursuing its “Future Made in Australia” industrial policy which has been described by supporters as strategic industrial investment but by critics as a feeble attempt to “pick winners”.
The policy, underpinned by a $15bn National Reconstruction Fund and new incentives for clean energy and critical minerals, aims to transition the economy towards net zero and protect national economic security.
Will it be a success? Who knows.
But just in case, the next time we are chiding our neighbours on lofty geopolitical matters or boasting about our status as a sophisticated “middle” power, perhaps it would be wise to show more restraint. We need more friends than we currently have.
And why exactly have we taken the sword to one of the few global renewable exports that we are actually good at – international education. Surely a more nuanced approach would have been in order, despite the populist politics.
We must keep supporting multilateral bodies such as the World Trade Organisation and, for Pete’s sake, let’s stop spending so much on winning Olympic medals.
If we don’t spend more time and money identifying the vulnerabilities of our evolving economy, we have no chance of maintaining our current standard of living.
As it stands, any of half a dozen rogue foreign powers could shut down our economy in a heartbeat. The sea cables on which we have become so heavily reliant could so easily be cut.
Stewart Oldfield is a director of industry intelligence firm Field Research.
