The Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council's founding members include global CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, Andrew Liveris, Pacific Brands CEO, John Pollaers, and CEO of Cochlear, Chris Roberts.
A private sector initiative, the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council's focus will be to drive national priority and policy change to foster Australia's comparative advantages in advanced manufacturing.
The council was launched at an inaugural meeting today, supported by the Australian Industry Group.
"Manufacturing underpins sustainable, diverse economies," Australian Industry Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, said today.
"The Australian economy is now exposed to significant risks arising from the combination of the end of the mining boom and the global financial crisis and its aftermath. We need to set about correcting the imbalances that have emerged both for our longer-term resilience and to fill the growth gap that is rapidly becoming more evident as the mining boom retreats," said Willox.
John Pollaers, CEO of Pacific Brands, said the private sector was in the best position to present a coherent view of Australia's competitive advantages. "We've allowed some of these advantages to languish or be compromised," said Pollaers.
"This group will provide the leadership to advance Australia's world class potential in high value manufacturing and help to redefine manufacturing in the public imagination," he said.
As CEO of Dow's $60 billion global operations, Andrew Liveris, has led the conversation in the United States that is enhancing a US manufacturing resurgence and a re-shoring of capabilities.
Liveris was co-chair of President Obama's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, and was recently appointed Chairman of the US Business Council.
"Since 2010, manufacturing has been a bright spot in the US, as the economy continues to recover from the financial crisis," Liveris explained. "Nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since January 2010.
"Australia can benefit from this country's highly skilled and trained workforce, like Germany and Singapore, and be as competitive as the US on input costs. Australia has the ingredients for a dynamic advanced manufacturing economy – we just need to foster the right environment," Liveris said.