Thursday, 6 August 2026 Topics: Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s national civil preparedness and resilience E&OE....................... SALLY SARA: Deputy Chair of the Committee Dave Sharma joins me now. Dave Sharma, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.
DAVE SHARMA: Good morning, Sally, nice to join you.
SALLY SARA: Might this sound a bit frightening for members of the public?
DAVE SHARMA: Look, I think it's a step up from an area where we've already increasingly become aware as the public of Australia's vulnerabilities during times of heightened geopolitical tension or things like a global pandemic. We've been through a few episodes now in Australia over the last 4 or 5 years where we've all been made made acutely aware of our dependence on overseas supply chains to continue to meet basic needs and functioning of our economy. And what this inquiry is doing is saying, let's, let's examine that in a more systematic way. And a recognition really that the continued operation of Australia and the continued functioning of our economy is not just a task for the Australian Defence Force and our military personnel. There's a civilian element to it as well to ensure continuity of operations, if you like. And that's really what this inquiry is looking at. What are the areas in the civilian or the non-military economy where we need to build up greater capability or strengthen our resilience so we can withstand global shocks, which are sadly becoming more frequent and more intense.
SALLY SARA: In a really practical sense, what would this kind of civilian preparedness, what would it look like?
DAVE SHARMA: I think it'll look at things like where are our most acute vulnerabilities for supply chain shocks. So look, obviously liquid fuels, which we've just seen, is a key one, but also things like, you know, protective personal equipment, medical equipment, which we saw through COVID, manufacturing capabilities, particularly of key weapons systems and ammunition and whatnot, which we might need in a wartime but which we might not be able to reliably get. Pharmaceuticals potentially as well. So it's not necessarily saying that Australia needs to be self-sufficient in all of those things. I think that would be an unrealistic expectation. But what can we do to lessen some of our vulnerabilities or increase our stocks or make sure that we have the capability to retool existing processes to meet domestic needs at a time of crisis?
SALLY SARA: What, what's the balance of responsibility here? I mean, we've learned a bit of this, uh, during the current conflict in the Middle East. Uh, sometimes the market is not in the same footprint that we would like for a sovereign capability. What levers does government have in policy and also funding to get those two things more aligned in case of emergency?
DAVE SHARMA: Well, you're right to point that out, and I think that's an important point. This is effectively about taking out an insurance policy, and an insurance policy comes with a premium, uh, which you pay even if you might never use it. Um, that is what we're talking about here, and we will need to use, you know, areas where Australia needs more capability, but would not be commercially viable under current conditions, and we need to find tools for the government to use, or public money to use, whether it's subsidies or offtake agreements or incentives to make sure that we have those capabilities. And we need to recognise that it's in our national interest to make sure that we do use public money to support the existence of some capabilities in those areas.
SALLY SARA: Senator, you're also Shadow Assistant Minister for International Development and the Indo-Pacific. Yesterday, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, referred to Australia's role as president of negotiations for the UN climate talks this year and the importance of climate change impacts in the Pacific region. Let's take a listen.
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CHRIS BOWEN: By opposing Australia playing this role, opposing the hosting of pre-COP in Fiji, our political opponents are making clear they would revert to the Morrison-Dutton tin ear approach to the Pacific's most defining issue.
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SALLY SARA: What do you make of Chris Bowen’s comments there about the Coalition's regional engagement?
DAVE SHARMA: Well, I disagree with him, and I think it's unfortunate he's trying to make Pacific policy, which has largely been bipartisan over the last several years, into a partisan issue. You know, I think this government has built on many of initiatives the Coalition put in place to step up our engagement with the Pacific. It was the Pacific Step Up by the Morrison government in 2018 that laid the foundations for a lot of our engagement since. And the government, to its credit, has taken some of those initiatives further— like the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific. I think we've been critical of the hosting of the pre-COP because it's clear that there's very few attendees are actually going to go. It's going to cost a lot of money to the Australian taxpayer and it's not actually burnishing Australia's credentials in any fashion.
SALLY SARA: Dave Sharma, thank you for joining me this morning.
DAVE SHARMA: Thanks so much for having me, Sally.
SALLY SARA: Senator Sharma is the Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence inquiring into Australia's civil preparedness. Submissions to the inquiry are currently open.
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