Our latest insights

Australian manufacturers have been through difficult times, particularly with the shutdown of the automotive industry, but remaining businesses are proving to be agile and resilient having already battled through lots of challenges. In addition, the accelerating pace of new technologies being introduced, combined with COVID-19 disruption and the Government’s substantial industry support, many manufacturing business models have been fundamentally challenged for the better.

With rising supply chain costs and disruptions on a global scale as a result of the pandemic, Australia has been a prime example of resilience by increasing reliance on domestic products to minimise shortages. Although we’ve increased the supply of Australian products, some organisations struggle to compete with global sellers. As supply chains slowly ease back into a pre-pandemic rhythm and import capabilities open back up to their full potential, to compete on a global scale more efficiently, this creates an opportunity to consider where trade policies via tariffs and quotas could be applied to even out the playing field.

Guidelines for the MMI Manufacturing Collaboration Stream have just been released.

Every country wants to export – it’s part and parcel of developing prosperity. And it’s part and parcel of Australia’s economy. To be successful, we need to have a diverse range of trade partnerships and to focus on value-adding manufacturing and retaining IP here in Australia.

The Australian Government announced it will invest an additional $100 million into extending the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) over the next four years, to the end of June 2025.

In our latest podcast, Tony Pititto, National Head of Agribusiness, Food & Beverage at Grant Thornton and Madina Aziz, Audit Partner discuss the opportunities for the sector through the Modern Manufacturing Initiative and what we need next from Government to help Australia target non-traditional export markets.

The ATO has recently announced they are reviewing a number of activities that involve alcohol entering the Australian domestic market for consumption without payment of the required amount of excise duty.

The Government has a 10 year plan to implement the Modern Manufacturing Initiative and develop our manufacturing capability.

Once upon a time, certainly in living memory, Australia had a thriving and diverse manufacturing sector.

Australia’s manufacturing sector will play a key role in our economic recovery. There are around 860,000 people employed by manufacturing. The sector is responsible for a huge amount of research and development, and it punches above its weight for the size of the sector.

COVID-19 has brought with it a tumultuous yet interesting time for the manufacturing sector.

COVID-19 has brought transparency to manufacturing – for the first time, consumers are starting to understand what we do and don’t make here, and changing their consumer behaviours with more knowledge of product origins.