Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
At the 2026 ASPI Defence Conference, Steven Thorpe DSM, CEO and Managing Director of Omni; Matt Opie, Former Chief Executive of Defence SA; and Jennifer Parker, Adjunct Professor at the Defence and Security Institute at the University of Western Australia, joined Dr Marigold Black, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at UNSW Canberra, for the session ‘Industrial Resilience and Australia's Freedom to Act’.
Australia's ability to act in its own interests during a crisis depends not only on military capability, but on the resilience of the industrial base, supply chains and sustainment systems that underpin it. The panel explored how industrial resilience strengthens Australia's freedom to act in a crisis, examining the role of sovereign industrial capability, resilient supply chains, domestic procurement and trusted international partnerships in sustaining military capability when it matters most.
At the 2026 ASPI Defence Conference, Steven Thorpe DSM, CEO and Managing Director of Omni; Matt Opie, Former Chief Executive of Defence SA; and Jennifer Parker, Adjunct Professor at the Defence and Security Institute at the University of Western Australia, joined Dr Marigold Black, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at UNSW Canberra, for the session ‘Industrial Resilience and Australia's Freedom to Act’.
Australia's ability to act in its own interests during a crisis depends not only on military capability, but on the resilience of the industrial base, supply chains and sustainment systems that underpin it. The panel explored how industrial resilience strengthens Australia's freedom to act in a crisis, examining the role of sovereign industrial capability, resilient supply chains, domestic procurement and trusted international partnerships in sustaining military capability when it matters most.
