2020 WA Indo-Pacific Defence & Defence Industry Strategy Series

The 2020 WA Indo-Pacific Defence and Defence Industry Strategy Series convened to bring together WA’s strategic leaders across sectors relating to defence and defence industry. The sessions examined Australia’s and Western Australia’s Defence strategic environment, and explored the opportunities for WA’s Defence Industry to leverage capabilities, capture growth opportunities and support national Defence.

Many of these challenges and opportunities are articulated in the Western Australian Defence and Defence Industries Strategic Plan, and have been thoroughly explored in the 2018 and 2019 WA Indo-Pacific Defence Conferences, however given the implications of COVID-19 and the Commonwealth Government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update and 2020 Force Structure Plan the issues, challenges and opportunities were analyses with renewed perspective in the 2020 series.

The 2020 WA Indo-Pacific Defence & Defence Industry Workshop Series enabled a deep analysis of WA’s new Defence strategic environment, informing how WA’s unique Defence Industry assets and capabilities can be further utilised and leveraged. The evolution from the Defence Conferences of previous years allows for the credible public promotion of the series and the resultant analysis – particularly concerning WA’s Defence Industry capabilities and growth potential in the new Defence strategic environment.

The four workshops consisted of up to 20 participants and five observers from industry, research and policy, tailored to each session’s theme. Each tailored outcomes chapter captures the key themes, analysis and findings of the respective tailored policy workshop. Each chapter reviews the opportunities and challenges facing the WA Defence sector in the specific policy area, reviews current WA industry capabilities, and identifies policy options for the WA Government to support the realisation of these opportunities.