Australia's food security should not be taken for granted. The COVID-19 pandemic shows what is at stake in the seismic strategic agenda.
Floods emptied supermarket shelves across Darwin in January, demonstrating the precarious nature of food security in Australia. Although it is not guaranteed, it is important to Australia's national security and, increasingly, regional security. The link was made by the House of Commons Agriculture Standing Committee following an inquiry into Australia's food security.
National security policymakers need to build that relationship, too. The submissions show that the strategic vulnerabilities that threaten Australia's food security are well-documented and well-understood by those who have actually been paying attention to them. The impact of war on the integrity of markets and supply chains, rising input costs, biosecurity threats in our region and climate change rank among the more serious risks highlighted.
The policy and industry measures needed to address these vulnerabilities are becoming increasingly clear, and the need for action is heightened whenever climate-related, supply chain, or geopolitical disruptions occur. I am.
The research report and recommendations offer clear solutions. The most important of these is that the Australian Government should lead the development of a national food plan, with support from the Minister for Food within the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio. The National Food Council will advise the Minister.
This report gives us a timely opportunity to define the fundamental role of food within Australia's broader defense and security framework. The opportunity to do so was lost in the public version of the Defense Strategy Review. The mission's recommendations present a late but important opportunity for the makers of the 2024 National Defense Strategy to support action to address vulnerabilities in Australia's food production. This is an opportunity to engage and work coherently with food system stakeholders who are determined to revitalize Australia's food security.
The National Food Program constitutes a food security strategy and, in the words of the Commission, “produces and distributes food, supplies chain resilience, access to food, good nutrition (diet and health), management and waste.” “We need to address the reduction of food and other waste.” It also needs to “identify and address the national security implications of food security, particularly vulnerabilities related to food system infrastructure and critical inputs.”
Supporting these recommendations will be of great benefit to the defense and national security community and will ensure that food, or the lack thereof, does not become a problem that must be addressed when it is best to focus on other things. This is to make it so.
After all, food insecurity is becoming increasingly “pervasive, chronic and intractable” in our society, as the food bank charity highlighted in its submission to the inquiry. If left unchecked, hunger among the people will breed dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction will breed instability. Addressing the domestic and regional consequences of that instability is a responsibility that security and defense establishments may be unwilling to accept but must endure anyway.
Food insecurity is not just a problem in developing countries, as Australia has always been subject to the vagaries of distance and geopolitical butterfly effects. A powerful example of this can now be seen in the attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which stem, at least in part, from the Israeli conflict in Gaza. This disruption to global trade is causing headaches for Australia and the region. Most visibly, the MV Bahiya, en route to Israel with more than 17,000 head of high-quality Australian livestock, was forced to return to Fremantle in early February. Regionally, the disruption is putting pressure on the world's food choke points and fueling food insecurity, as Genevieve Donnellon-May has astutely highlighted.
This is yet another reminder of the fragility of Australia's own supply chains, compounded by the precarious state of our sovereign maritime transport capabilities. We are totally dependent on access to the world for critical inputs and exports that support our sovereignty and solvency. The commission's report, like many others, therefore recommends that the Australian government increase domestic sovereign capacity by supporting “the development and expansion of essential inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides.” .
But building that capacity poses a formidable challenge for policymakers. While Australia relies on and is committed to the Western liberal rules-based order and multilateral trading system, we have the ability to strengthen our own sovereign capacity and reduce our dependence on globalized supply chains. There is little choice but to contribute to the erosion of Australia by doing so.
Despite this challenge, it is not only in our own strategic interest to meet this challenge. It is also an opportunity to achieve the government's stated ambition to “re-establish itself as the region's economic, security and development partner of choice”. As Australia strengthens its capabilities as a food producer, it will become a more preferred partner for its neighbors.
Australia's place in the world has always been characterized by the natural strategic advantages of our geography, resources and, perhaps most fundamentally, our ability to produce and export food. To ensure our own security, we must take increasing responsibility for leveraging these advantages to support regional stability and security. The National Food Plan, with all its attendants, could add real weight to Australia's national politics and be a decisive way to use food diplomacy to strengthen our national and regional food security.
After all, food security is one of Australia's greatest fundamental strengths, and these recommendations represent a significant opportunity to strengthen it. Addressing the wide range of issues affecting food security from a national security perspective is one of the most important things the government can do during this term. In practice, this means two distinct actions on her part. It is to implement the commission's recommendations and enshrine the critical role of the food system in his 2024 National Defense Strategy. Doing so will galvanize real collaboration with food system stakeholders and demonstrate a real commitment to a whole-of-nation approach to Australia's security.
