The WA Governor asked for an audience with ECU experts.
Edith Cowan University academics have been sought out to share their expertise and help shape Western Australia moving forward.
ECU School of Business and Law's Associate Professor Flavio Macau and Professor Kerry Brown visited Government House to offer the WA Governor their insights into WA’s supply chains, which have faced unprecedented challenges due to COVID, floods, and the war in Ukraine.
Other topics included additive manufacturing, the AdBlue crisis and the 'gap' in fertiliser production in 2023/24, while an overreliance on overseas supplies for products such as petrol and chemicals was identified as an area of concern.
"We discussed that more information about inventory levels and international benchmarks are needed, along with a strategic approach to what should be made in Australia," Professor Macau said.
"There is a shift from 'just-in-time' to 'just-in-case', along with a 'China plus one' global supply strategy. Also, lowering warehousing and transportation costs to boost supply chain resilience must be further discussed by industry, government, and academics."
The visit came after Professor Macau's attendance at the Governor's Strategic Foresight Dialogue event in February.
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Executive Dean Professor David Shirley was also invited to take part in the Conversations at Government House series.
The wide-ranging discussion offered an insightful snapshot of Professor Shirley's theatre career, his passion for teaching, his ambitions and plans for WAAPA and what moving into the city as part of ECU's City Campus will mean for the world-class Academy.
"The city campus is going to really project WAAPA into an international space," he told the Governor.
"It gives us the opportunity in a state-of-the-art facility to explore the potential for training in the future – and not just explore it, but to begin to set industry agendas."
