Australia’s ability to maintain essential goods and services during conflict or a major crisis will be examined as part of a new parliamentary inquiry into national civil preparedness and resilience.
The inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence will consider how federal, state, territory and local governments could work with the private sector and broader community to improve Australia’s capacity to withstand and recover from significant shocks.
Publicly announced on 4 August, the inquiry has a broad scope and is likely to raise questions about supplier concentration, domestic production capacity, logistics networks, critical inventories and alternative sources of supply.
Committee chair Senator Deborah O’Neill said national security could not be treated as the responsibility of the Australian Defence Force alone.
“There is no more important task than the defence of the nation. We live in a time of geostrategic contest that grows more complex by the day,” she said.
“The task of defending the nation and deterring assaults on our sovereignty falls not only to armed service men and women but to every Australian, and engages every sector of the economy and our civil society.
“The task of readying for the security of Australia impels us to assess the civil preparedness and resilience of our nation.
“Recent conflicts overseas have exposed how quickly Australia’s reliance on the interconnected global economy, and its trade networks, can make us vulnerable to supply chain shocks.”
Committee deputy chair Senator Dave Sharma also backed the inquiry.
“Australia’s deteriorating strategic environment and heightened geopolitical risk requires a greater degree of resilience, preparedness and self-reliance, so Australia can withstand global shocks. This inquiry will contribute to that effort,” he said.
According to ABC News reporting, the committee is likely to focus particularly on strengthening the security of imported fuel and fertiliser supplies in the wake of the war in Iran, and may also examine how essential infrastructure could be protected during a major conflict.
Although the inquiry is still at an early stage, it could raise questions about how procurement decisions balance upfront cost and efficiency against resilience, sovereign capability and continuity of supply.
Defence Minister Richard Marles also supported a renewed focus on civil preparedness.
“To be frank, this is an area which really hasn’t received much attention in Australian public policy since the end of the Second World War,” he said.
“But in any contingency, the way in which the civil economy operates and interacts with the defence force is fundamental to a society, to us as a country, being able to manage that contingency.
“Now, it is important that we are able to prepare for that, that we’re able to exercise those muscles, if I could put it that way.”
In a subsequent doorstop interview in Darwin, Marles pointed to approaches used overseas.
“Other countries around the world do this,” he said.
“We want to look at what world’s best practice is, see how we can walk down this path better.”
The inquiry will consider collaboration with international partners and how overseas preparedness models could be adapted to suit Australian conditions.
Several countries, including Sweden and Finland, have already developed whole-of-society preparedness systems encompassing emergency stockpiles, food and energy security, critical infrastructure, public communications and cooperation between governments, businesses and communities.
The inquiry follows the release of the 2026 National Defence Strategy, which flagged improving national civil preparedness and resilience as an important part of Australia’s national defence planning.
In the strategy, the Federal Government committed to developing greater self-reliance, strengthening the resilience of Australia’s sovereign defence industrial base and building stronger, more diverse international industrial partnerships.
The strategy also directs targeted investment towards sustainment, logistics and health capabilities, which Marles described as indispensable foundations of military effectiveness.
“Preparedness is not just about platforms and weapons systems,” he said at the strategy’s launch in April.
“As an island trading nation our sea lines of communication literally define our national security.”
The accompanying Integrated Investment Program sets out around $425 billion in new and continuing Defence investment over the next decade.
However, the new inquiry will look beyond military procurement to examine the broader economic, industrial and community systems Australia would need to rely on during a major crisis.
The inquiry was adopted on 27 July 2026, with businesses, industry bodies, government agencies and other interested parties invited to make submissions by Friday, 6 November.
