We exist to further the cause of Australia's national preparedness, come crisis or conflict.
Between 2024 and 2026, the Australian National University's National Security College asked more than 20,000 Australians how ready the country is for the decade ahead. It ran through fifteen different threats, from floods and fuel shocks to cyber attacks and foreign powers. The answer was the same for every one of them. Fewer than one in five felt prepared.
The Essington Institute exists to close that gap. We fix these problems not by waiting for trouble to arrive, but by building the foundation now. We work on preparedness at three levels.
The plans, stockpiles and decisions that keep a country running under pressure, made and rehearsed before the crisis arrives, and the will to hold to them once it does rather than improvise.
We are reclaiming what sovereign industry means, rebuilding the means to make what we need at home, and sending industry out into the world to learn the most important lessons of our time.
The practical preparedness of ordinary families and communities, built up in the calm so it's there in the emergency. It is what separates a hard week from a disaster when the shelves empty.
If that work is yours, whether in government, in industry, or in the community that has to hold together when things go wrong, we'd like to hear from you.