Tony Abbott urges rethink on China supply chain dependence

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has urged Australian businesses to rethink their dependency on Chinese manufacturing and look for alternative sources of key materials.

In pre-recorded comments to a US think tank, Mr Abbott said China's growing influence in the Asia Pacific was having effects on supply chains for Australian companies.

"We do not want to be needing China for anything that is absolutely critical to our long-term future," Mr Abbott told the Hudson Institute in Washington DC.

"If we are dependent on China for that, we could certainly find ourselves deprived of it when we need it most."

LIVE UPDATES: Champion jockey gives expert Melbourne Cup predictions, horse scratched

Mr Abbott said if he was an Australian business boss, "I wouldn't want to have China in my supply chains".

As prime minister in 2015, Mr Abbott signed a a free trade agreement between Australia and China.

The world's delicate supply chains are under extreme stress as the global economy emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Abbott's comments came after Moody's Analytics warned supply chain disruptions will get worse before they get better.

"As the global economic recovery continues to gather steam, what is increasingly apparent is how it will be stymied by supply-chain disruptions that are now showing up at every corner," Moody's wrote in a report issued.

READ MORE: Leaked text message in spat between French PM and Morrison

Port and factory closures, shortages of shipping containers and rising demand have contributed to backlogs at ports and delays for deliveries of everything from bicycles to computer chips used in smartphones and cars.

In his comments to the Hudson Institute, Mr Abbott also repeated concerns about growing Chinese influence that he raised during his controversial Taiwan visit last month.

He says Beijing's growing power is a bigger threat than climate change.

"I'd be a lot more scared about a shooting war with China than I would be about a couple of degrees rise in temperature over the next 50 or 60 years," Mr Abbott said.