Manufacturing is a cornerstone of Australia’s, Victoria’s and Geelong’s economy, driving innovation, creating high value jobs, and underpinning supply chain resilience essential for national prosperity and global competitiveness.
To help build a stronger and more prosperous manufacturing sector, GMC advocates across five key pillars – RED TAPE, ENERGY, INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE, SKILLS and ADVANCED MANUFACTURING – that address the challenges and opportunities facing manufacturers in Australia.
What we need
Australia must commit to a coordinated, national effort to support early-stage advanced manufacturing. This includes lifting R&D investment to globally competitive levels, strengthening alignment between research and industry, and providing targeted support for early-stage commercialisation and scale-up.
Australian governments, both state and national, must invest in deepening the collaboration between universities and manufacturers and actively integrate local firms into global value chains. In addition to a coordinated policy direction, as a nation, Australia must promote itself more assertively as a destination for innovation, investment, and advanced production.
Why
Global production is increasingly driven by complex value chains in which countries that control high-value technologies capture the greatest economic returns.
Australia’s continued reliance on resource exports, lower R&D intensity, and weak integration into these global value chain systems, limits its ability to generate long-term growth and high-value jobs. Without decisive action, promising innovations will continue to be commercialised offshore, and Australia will fall further behind global competitors. Supporting early-stage advanced manufacturing ensures that Australian ideas are translated into domestic capability, strengthening economic resilience, productivity, and global competitiveness.
