Good morning Gurpartap, The Back Australia campaign was vital when we launched it late last year. It is even more vital now. We warned, as did our pantheon of industry and government partners, that Australia desperately needed to regain its economic sovereignty and restore our global standing as a nation that makes things. Right here, right now. By Australians, for Australians. In the months that have followed that warning could not have resonated more. The war in Iran and the stranglehold of critical fuel supplies in the Persian Gulf is the ultimate and brutal proof that unless we are self-sufficient in what we produce on these shores we will be forever beholden to the whims of a volatile and often violent world. That is the bad news. The good news is that Australia is perfectly positioned to harness our almost limitless natural resources and of course our greatest resource of all: The passion, the power and the pride of our people. And so as our nation enters into the dark and difficult times ahead, this masthead is relaunching the Back Australia initiative to ensure that we are the best equipped to not just navigate this path but to carve out a new road to prosperity and productivity. 
Last time it was a threat that loomed large in our future. Today it is a threat that is right here on our doorstep. It is also a challenge at our very kitchen table as families struggle with the cost of not having affordable access to all the endless bounties and critical commodities that our wide brown land has the potential to offer. Australians know this: In our hearts and minds, in our bones and in our wallets. And they have responded in kind. A poll of 2000 people has found almost two-thirds of Australians reported buying Australian-made goods always or often — an increase of eight per cent since the campaign first launched in October. And more than eight out of 10 support more domestic manufacturing and less global reliance. Hearteningly, nowhere is this commitment more strong than in our youth, with even cash-strapped millennials saying they are prepared to pay more for Australian-made products — an investment that will make life more affordable in the future. Their future. That is why Australia matters. That is why Back Australia matters. And that is why it is time to Back Australia again — now and forever. 
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Joe Hildebrand
