‘Bold action’ call to spend $1.5b on creating semiconductor industry

Phillip Coorey and Tom McIlroy

Sep 21, 2022 – 6.00am

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The Albanese government should invest $1.5 billion to establish a domestic industry to manufacture semiconductors, rather than continue to rely on increasingly risky overseas providers, principally Taiwan, Australia’s pre-eminent national security think-tank has recommended.

In a new report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as coercive trade practices by China, demonstrated that Australia could no longer rely on free-trade principles for the supply of such a crucial product.

Phillip Coorey is the political editor based in Canberra. He is a two-time winner of the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence.

Tom McIlroy is the Financial Review’s Canberra bureau chief based in the press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously the AFR’s political correspondent.