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PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH FOR THE
LAUNCH OF AUSTRALIAN MADE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
SYDNEY 3 NOVEMBER 1989
More than three years ago, when I launched the Australian
Made Campaign at the Opera House, I was in the company of
some truly great Australians. Their presence symbolised the
excellence and commitment required for the achievement of
national success in an increasingly competitive world.
Today's occasion is somewhat more modest, for it is a launch
of a new Australian Made advertising campaign. But the two
Australians here with us today, who feature in the new
Australian Made advertisements, have achieved the same order
of excellence as those gathered with me back in August 1986.
I refer, of course, to Kay Cottee and Dick Smith. By any
measure Kay and Dick are great achievers, they have made
Australians proud of them and they are giving back to their
country which has created the opportunity for the success
they have enjoyed.
I thank you, Kay and Dick, for your contribution to this
most important campaign.
At the launch in 1986 1 expressed confidence that the
Australian Made Campaign would be successful in helping
persuade customers to buy Australian made products where
they represented value for money. The message was and
still is stop and compare. If the Australian product is
competitive with the imported variety in both price and
quality terms, then go for the Aussie product. The campaign
has never exhorted consumers to buy Australian made,
regardless of price and quality. Rather, it has sought to
raise awareness of the national benefits from buying
Australian. By any objective measure, the campaign to date has been an
outstanding success. It is not easy to estimate how much
import replacement has occurred as a result of the campaign;
in fact, it's impossible. But the survey work we have done
suggests there is over 90 per cent awareness of the green
and gold kangaroo logo, and buying behaviour ha. z been
significantly affected by the campaign.
Another indication of the success of the campaign is the
number of Australian Made licensees: over 1600
manufacturers, producing in excess of 30,000 products.
Despite this very substantial achievement, the time has come
to reinvigorate the campaign. We do not accept the argument
of the conservative political parties that there is no role
for public funding for the campaign. Industry will.
participate, but government has a responsibility to
reinforce in the minds of the public the national advantages
of buying Australian. This is what the new phase of
advertising does.
The new funding we have committed to the campaign, amounting
to $ 2.4 million, takes the total commitment of my Government
to $ 8.7 million. Like a good Aussie product, I consider
that to be value for money.
-The new advertising phase begins this Sunday and will go
through November into early December. A special promotion
called Give Australian Week will be conducted nationally,
starting 27 November. This is designed to encourage all
Australians and tourists to consider Australian Made
products when purchasing gifts in the lead-up to Christmas.
The Australian Made campaign will be promoted throughout the
next 12 months and I have every reason to believe it will
achieve even greater success than it has enjoyed to date.
Finally, I would like to commend Norm Spencer of the Advance
Australia Foundation, who has been with the campaign from
the very start. The dedication of Norm and his small team
has much to do with the success of the campaign and I am
sure the Advance Australia Foundation will continue to make
a valuable contribution to this most important project.
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be associated with
this launch of the Australian Made advertising campaign.