How boards can build resilience amid geo-economic uncertainty

In a turbulent geo-economic climate, resilience is dominating the agenda at both government and board levels. The AICD supports a “Team Australia” approach to dealing with a complicated risk environment.

Australian boards are grappling with the governance and strategic challenges posed by complex and concentrated supply chains in an increasingly turbulent geo-economic environment. This is necessarily elevating the governance focus on resilience, with more complex operational, strategic and risk considerations dominating board agendas.

At the political level, national resilience is the dominant thread across multiple policy fronts, from fuel and energy supply to critical infrastructure security and cyberthreats.

The AICD is part of the Alliance of Industry Associations (AIA) – along with the Business Council of Australia, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia and other key groups – committed to working with the government in a “Team Australia” approach to support effective collaboration and responses on these national issues.

Industry groups are also calling for a fit-for-purpose regulatory environment, not just to support productivity growth, but also as a national resilience measure.

The AIA has specific asks to move the dial – including a target to reduce regulatory burden by 25 per cent by 2030 and lifting reporting thresholds to focus reporting on organisations of appropriate scale. These measures would deliver billions of dollars in value to the economy and support a more agile and fit-for-purpose regulatory regime.

The AICD’s groundbreaking research with Mandala Partners has helped to quantify the substantial productivity boost that better regulation can deliver ($160 billion and counting: The cost of Commonwealth regulatory complexity).

Members can read the Alliance's post-budget statement here.

At the same time, the government is seeking to strengthen critical infrastructure legislation in response to Australia’s unique geopolitical position and evolving threat environment – including potentially placing greater obligations on boards.

Many legal frameworks require organisations to identify and mitigate supply chain risks, including modern slavery obligations, APRA prudential requirements and the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SOCI Act).

At the time of writing, the government is consulting on further amendments to the SOCI Act and expanded ministerial powers of direction and intervention. These consultations draw on the Independent Review of the SOCI Act, released in March 2026.

Proposed enhancements to ministerial directions powers encompass expanded conditions powers – including on board composition – where control or governance arrangements could create material national security risks. Among other proposals are restrictions on use of high-risk vendors and higher civil penalties for breaches of ministerial directions.

Changes are also proposed to the SOCI Act critical infrastructure risk management obligations, including supply chain vulnerability maps and greater cybersecurity demands

In a welcome step, the government has also acknowledged the challenges of managing continuous disclosure obligations during a cyber incident, with proposals for a new specific power to allow delayed market disclosure in certain circumstances.