Resilience, Not Self-Sufficiency, Is the Cheaper Insurance Policy for Australia

Strategic stockpiles of critical goods like fuel and PPE offer a far cheaper and more practical form of resilience than local production. Holding buffer stocks acts as a form of insurance, minimising disruption from reasonably likely shocks at a fraction of the cost of self-sufficiency.

Australia faces growing vulnerability in critical supply chains due to decades of optimising for efficiency over resilience. Reliance on 'just in time' supply chains increases fragility when disruptions occur, as seen with PPE during COVID and now with fuel.

Full national self-sufficiency in goods and services is economically unviable due to Australia's high wage levels and small domestic market. Attempting self-sufficiency would drastically increase costs, reduce consumer choice, and damage living standards and productivity.

Building redundancy into national and personal finances improves resilience without sacrificing the benefits of global trade or market participation. Individuals can apply the same principle by maintaining emergency cash, diversified portfolios, and household supplies to withstand unexpected shocks.