The Australian and United States governments both ordered urgent reviews of their supply chains last week amid growing concern about their vulnerability to disruption by China.
Australia’s Productivity Commission, which typically takes three or four months to prepare an interim report and a year or more to complete a study, has been given just one month to deliver its initial findings on the nation’s dependence on imports. A final report also looking at risks to exports is to be handed to the government by the end of May.
The final report will identify supply chains ‘vulnerable to the risk of disruption and also critical to the functioning of the economy, national security and Australians’ well being,’ as well as proposing risk-mitigation strategies.
Getty Images
To sign up for our daily newsletter covering the latest news, features and reviews, head HERE. For a running feed of all our stories, follow us on Twitter HERE. Or you can bookmark the Gizmodo Australia homepage to visit whenever you need a news fix.
Buying a phone or smart device these days means accepting that you will need to replace it sooner rather than later. New features entice users to buy new devices, whereas old devices stop being supported and, in some cases, are difficult to maintain in the medium to long term. There is, however, a push to ensure that manufacturers should accommodate a ‘right to repair’ for Australian consumers.