Senior Analyst Dr. Greg Brown presented to active duty and reserve US Air Force and Air National Guard officers

Senior Analyst Dr. Greg Brown presented to active duty and reserve US Air Force and Air National Guard officers at a 26-28 February, closed-door Alan L. Freed seminar on China and the Indo-Pacific. His talk, Covert, Coercive, and Corrupt: CCP Influence in the Pacific Islands, highlighted contemporary political warfare campaigns in the Pacific amid a deteriorating security environment for the United States, Australia, and likeminded states.

17 April elections in the Solomon Islands ASPI DC Senior Analyst Greg Brown story

Voice of America quoted ASPI DC Senior Analyst Greg Brown in a 22 February story regarding American and Chinese interests in the 17 April elections in the Solomon Islands. The report featuring Dr. Brown replayed on VOA Asia Weekly on 29 February.

ASPI DC AUKUS Pillar 2 Roundtable

On 15 February, ASPI DC’s Director Adam Leslie and ASPI’s Director of Cyber, Technology and Security Dr. Alex Caples had the pleasure of hosting a variety of American, Australian, and British stakeholders from government, defense, NGOs, industry, and academia for a roundtable discussion at the ASPI DC office.

The purpose of the event was to consider perspectives on the challenges and opportunities across AUKUS Pillar 2, innovation collaboration, critical technologies, and workforce development in order to refine the debate and inform recommendations to policymakers across the Trilateral.

The roundtable solicited a candid conversation on where AUKUS partners are falling behind in the strategic competition with China, what a practical Pillar 2 end state looks like, and how government can include private industry to achieve common goals relevant to deterrence, among other topics.

Following the roundtable, discussions between attendees continued with the group meeting a variety of stakeholders at ASPI DC’s monthly mixer, Policy in the Pub.

Hudson Institute Panel Event

On 24 January 2024, Senior Analyst Dr. Greg Brown joined the panel at the Hudson Institute event ‘Reinforcing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific’. Alongside panellists James J. Przystup, Japan Chair at the Hudson Institute; Yuki Tatsumi, Senior Fellow, Stimson Center and Lisa Curtis, Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security; Greg offered insights on Australia’s efforts to shape the Indo-Pacific’s strategic environment. 

The discussion used Dr. James Przystup’s report on “Reinforcing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific” to reflect on Australian, Japanese, Indian, and US efforts to broaden and deepen security engagement. The event is available to watch on-demand here.

ASPI DC Roundtable with Australian Secretary of Defence, Greg Moriarty

On 19 January, ASPI DC’s Director Adam Leslie had the pleasure of hosting Australian Secretary of Defence, Greg Moriarty, for a roundtable discussion at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC on 19 January.

The event centered on the nexus between Australian Defence policy and private investment in military infrastructure for force projection, deterrence, and preparedness in the Indo Pacific; natural resources under DPA Title III; and dual-use technology and innovation. Also in attendance were Australian and American private investors with a keen interest in this domain.

The gathering solicited a productive discussion about the importance of growing and maintaining strong partnerships between Defence and private entities focused on shared strategic interests. The ASPI DC team received positive feedback from attendees who hope to continue this dialogue further.

Left to Right: Australian Secretary of Defence Greg Moriarty, ASPI DC Director Adam Leslie, Deputy Head of Mission for the Embassy of Australia Paul Myler.

2023 Indo-Pacific Strategy Forum (ISPF)

On 5 December 2023, Senior Analyst Dr. Greg Brown, provided a Keynote Address at the 2023 Indo-Pacific Strategy Forum (ISPF) in Ottawa—the largest and most comprehensive Indo-Pacific conference in Canada on defence and trade engagement in the region.

The Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IPD) and the Canada West Foundation (CWF) co-hosted two-days of ISPF panels and presentations featuring nearly 40 expert speakers from Canada and the Indo-Pacific region.

Occurring a year after the Government of Canada launched its Indo-Pacific Strategy, the 2023 conference was a timely platform for evaluating the progress of the strategy’s implementation, exploring Canada’s broader engagement with the region, and understanding how this engagement is perceived within the Indo-Pacific.

Dr. Brown’s address: A Perspective from Australia: Navigating Relations with China and the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific, outlined Australia’s forefoot foreign policy and its possible lessons for strengthening Ottawa’s relations and influence in Washington.

Quad Technology Business and Investment Forum

On 15 November, ASPI Washington DC Director, Adam Leslie, and Analyst, Bronte Munro, attended the Quad Technoloy Business and Investment Forum held in the margins of APEC in San Francisco. The Forum was hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, following the success of the inaugural Forum hosted by ASPI in Australia in December 2022. The event provided a forum for further engagement on continued Quad cooperation in key technology areas.

Webinar: Australia’s National Semiconductor Moonshot: Securing Semiconductor Talent

On 15 November 2023, ASPI hosted a webinar with the authors of its 2023 report, ‘Australia’s national semiconductor moonshot: securing semiconductor talent’. Bronte Munro, Dr Robert Clark and Alex Capri joined Dr Alexandra Caples, Director of Cyber, Technology and Security at ASPI, to discuss how Australia can develop a talent pipeline to support a sovereign semiconductor manufacturing industry.

The discussion explored global trends in friend-shoring between allies to address talent pipeline and supply chain security, and examples of effective public-private partnerships that Australia can draw on to develop its own capability. A staged funding approach to kick-start Australia’s manufacturing industry via the National Reconstruction Fund as an initial stimulus for foreign investment was also discussed.

Securing the talent for Australia’s semiconductor-manufacturing moonshot

Establishing a semiconductor-manufacturing capability in Australia is a once-in-a-generation challenge that could determine the country’s place in the world. For Canberra, it’s an endeavour of the same magnitude as America’s historic ‘moonshot’ during the 1960s and 1970s.

Such a massive undertaking requires an equally massive investment, but there will likely never be a more important time for Australia to commit to it. Supply-chain security and advanced technologies are at the centre of today’s great-power competition.

With a strong semiconductor-manufacturing industry, Australia would be able to make chips relevant to the energy, transport, health, information technology and defence sectors. It could better execute its long-term plans for critical technologies such as quantum and artificial intelligence that are central to global strategic competition, and which the government has identified as vital for Australia. And it could reduce vulnerability to supply-chain disruptions from conflict or natural disasters, while sustaining highly skilled jobs.

Australian officials at the Quantum World Congress held in Washington in September acknowledged that encouraging advanced manufacturing, including semiconductor production, was in Australia’s strategic interest. To leverage this momentum, the government needs to formulate a clear strategy for growing Australia’s semiconductor-manufacturing industry, supported by a highly skilled talent pipeline.

The federal government’s commitment to AUKUS Pillar 2 acknowledges that allied collaboration is essential to ensure that like-minded nations maintain a technological edge. US export controls through the CHIPS and Science Act are driving China to rapidly develop its own advanced semiconductor-manufacturing capability. Its ambitious goals make it a strong competitor for a limited global pool of talent.

A new ASPI report, Australia’s semiconductor-manufacturing moonshot: securing semiconductor talent, outlines how Australia can step up its semiconductor device fabrication research and development to industry-compatible prototyping. With this capability and the support of government funding and incentives, Australia could attract the investment from a global semiconductor manufacturer it needs to eventually establish a mature-process-scale foundry in Australia, which can produce in the 90- to 130-nanometre node range. This generation of chip technology is still in high demand for defence applications, cars, household goods and medical devices, so there are significant economic and security benefits from producing in this range—and a comparatively low barrier to entry for Australia.

Access to human capital is a vital factor dictating whether Australia can achieve this goal.

The ability to grow and maintain a skilled workforce will be crucial in attracting investment and scaling the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Globally, by 2030 the industry will require at least a million more skilled workers than it had in 2021 to meet the forecast 80% growth in demand for chips.

For Australia, attracting investment from foreign semiconductor foundries is essential, and establishing public–private partnerships between government, industry and academia will be necessary to secure talent pipelines. Australia has a strong R&D base in semiconductor technologies and related fields but lacks the depth and scale in available talent to meet the moonshot requirements. How successful Australia is at positioning itself as an attractive place for investment from foreign foundries will be determined in part by the strength of government policy in signalling the industry’s growth as priority.

The talent required to support the semiconductor industry includes a wide range of STEM-related and professional skills, as well as specialised construction workers and engineers to build the facilities. Advanced manufacturing nations such as the US, Japan and Taiwan are already creating public–private partnerships, and partnerships between industry and academia, to address the acute global talent shortage in their fields.

Australia needs to learn from these countries’ experiences to determine best practice for establishing similar relationships between tertiary education providers and industry. A collaborative and iterative approach will ensure that industry experts are involved in curriculum development, students have access to cutting-edge facilities for training, and R&D and innovation ecosystems have a better chance of scaling into industry activities.

The partnership between US manufacturer SkyWater Technology and Purdue University in Indiana offers an example of scale and specialisation that ASPI’s report recommends Australia learn from. Supported by both state and federal government incentives, the partnership enables SkyWater Technology to leverage the R&D and innovation ecosystem at Purdue University to support its foundry activities.

State-level activities in New South Wales are already moving towards similar partnerships with an aim to advance semiconductor manufacturing and adjacent technology sectors, such as quantum, in which Australia has an outsized R&D and innovation capability.

The NSW government’s Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau is collaborating with leading Australian universities and actively engaging with the Taiwanese semiconductor industry to grow Australia’s sovereign semiconductor capability. This nascent talent pipeline complements the suitability of NSW and other states, notably Queensland, for investment through public–private partnerships to grow Australia’s semiconductor industry.

Australia has strong credentials across its advanced university and government agency semiconductor R&D facilities, enterprising start-up companies, infrastructure, and investment in critical technologies and talent pipelines by both federal and state governments.

The federal government must demonstrate to foreign industry the appeal of partnering with Australian industry, education providers and government. The first recommendation in ASPIs report is for increased signalling through a national semiconductor industry development strategy. It should include financial incentives and investment roadmaps that facilitate partnerships between domestic and foreign organisations. Australia should look to examples of such policies. The UK, for instance, published a national semiconductor strategy in May that outlines how the government will work closely with industry and build strong foundations in this vital technology.

Existing trusted alliance frameworks for technology collaboration, such as AUKUS, should be prioritised and, as ASPI’s report recommends, used to identify shared gaps in semiconductor manufacturing and talent supply chains and coordinate resource sharing to address them.

The US, a global leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, is an ideal source of investment. Such investment would have the benefit of diversifying US semiconductor supply chains with a trusted partner in a geostrategically important region. This would give the US access to Australia’s talent pipeline, helping develop it and connecting more directly with Australian innovation in critical technologies through industry-scale prototyping which is at the heart of AUKUS Pillar 2.

The cost of developing Australia’s semiconductor-manufacturing industry will be financially significant but the ramifications of failing to develop this capability will be greater.

Australia’s semiconductor manufacturing moonshot: Securing semiconductor talent

Semiconductors are a critical component in all modern technologies, from personal communication devices and medical devices to weapons systems. Crucial to producing semiconductors is the availability of a highly skilled workforce, managing clean-room facilities and highly specialised equipment to execute the hundreds of unique steps needed to manufacture a single wafer, depending on the complexity of the chip.

ASPI’s 2022 report, Australia’s semiconductor national moonshot, laid out the strategic reasons why Australia must embark on a capacity-building initiative to create a homegrown semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Every item on the Australian federal government’s List of Critical Technologies in the National Interest is dependent on semiconductors.

By committing to growing a semiconductor-manufacturing industry from a mature-process-scale baseline, policymakers would position Australia to manufacture chips relevant to the energy, transport, health, IT and defence sectors. Such an industry would enable Australia to execute long-term critical technology strategies in areas such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, to mitigate supply-chain risk against disruption from conflict or natural disaster, and provide highly skilled jobs in affordable locations, enriching the Australian economy.

It’s important to note that both AUKUS Pillar 2 and the Albanese government’s April 2023 publication of the Defence Strategic Review reflect a shift in Australia’s strategic thinking on defence and national security, and the important correlation and greater cooperation between industry, education and defence priorities, particularly when it comes to technology. Delivering on that shift will be difficult and often costly, but this report provides a series of recommendations of what that correlation and cooperation could look like.

For Canberra, such an endeavour is of the same magnitude as America’s historic ‘moonshots’ during the 1960s and 1970s. It’s a once-in-a-generation challenge that will determine Australia’s place in the world, and human capital is central to ensuring success. Opting out of semiconductor manufacturing for the long term would severely constrain Australia’s growth as a technological nation and consign it to second-tier status.

This report expands on the recommendations made in the 2022 ASPI report for establishing a semiconductor-manufacturing capability in Australia and focuses on the importance of creating a talent pipeline that can support a scaled industry. Achieving a semiconductor moonshot requires stepping up Australia’s very respectable semiconductor device fabrication R&D to industry-compatible prototyping via a dedicated facility, together with attracting (through that capability and by government incentives) a semiconductor manufacturer to locate a mature-process-scale foundry in Australia—which will require support from an upskilled Australian talent pipeline. This is an ambitious move but is an essential step in growing such a capability.

The ability to grow and maintain a high-skilled workforce is a foundational challenge for Australia that can be addressed through close examination of trailblazing public–private partnerships (PPPs) that aim to provide talent-pipeline security in the US, Taiwan and Japan. Australian governments, industry and academia can emulate and engage with the examples highlighted through case studies in this report to attract semiconductor industry investment, boost talent-pipeline development and strengthen industry R&D. Australia’s states and territories all have varied capacity to o›er support to a semiconductor-manufacturing capability.