National Manufacturing Summit 2017

After years of downsizing and pessimism, there are encouraging signs that manufacturing industry in Australia may be turning a corner. Employment and new orders have grown. Business optimism is improving. And Australians still firmly believe that a healthy manufacturing sector is crucial to national prosperity.

The Centre for Future Work and The Australia Institute is hosting the National Manufacturing Summit, a one-day gathering at Parliament House. The goal is to gather experts from industry, the policy community, higher education, and the media to discuss the renewed positive potential for Australian manufacturing, consider how the industry is presently perceived, identify barriers to its future expansion, and propose initiatives to accelerate the sector’s innovation and growth.

For years, Australians have heard mostly 'bad' news from manufacturing: losses, closures, and redundancies. They could be forgiven for assuming this sector has no future. But that pessimism is badly misplaced: in fact, this is a…