PRIME MI1NISTER
CHECK AGAINST nELIVERY EMIlARCOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF THE 1991 AUSTRALIAN MADE CAMPAIGN
POWERHOUSE MUSEUM
SYDNEY 28 AUGUST 1991
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to be here at the Powerhouse Museum to
launch the 1991 Australian Made campaign.
There are plenty of examplets of Australian ingenuity
on display here already, arid if what is in the new campaign
is any guide, there will be plenty more products of the
clever country looking for display space in the future.
This is the fifth anniversary of Australian Made and the
green and gold kangaroo has3 become the symbol of Australian
excellence. There has been a perceptible change in the way we look at
home grown goods and services. Where once, perhaps, we
automatically thought that imported was always better, now
we have second thoughts. Now we know that in many areas
Australian is just as good, if not better.
In manufactured goods, in particular, I believe quality has
improved substantially which is reflected in what we think
in Australia, but equally in what buyers think overseas, as
reflected in the substantial increase in manufactured
exports. Buying Australian is certainly better value. Every time we
buy Australian we do something for our fellow Australians.
In a recession or a boom, buying Australian has a direct
impact on jobs.
What I say is: Be Australian, buy Australian.
Ladies and gentlemen, few things we can do as individuals,
as businesses or as governments are more important to
the future of Australia than buying Australian.
For every $ 1 million used to replace imports 35 jobs are
created in industry.
Import replacement buying Australian is one of the ways
we will create sustainable jobs as part of our long term
sustained economic recovery. And the key word
is " sustained". Sustained and sustainable recovery is the
only answer to the present thoroughly unacceptable level of
unemployment. It was part of last week's Budget, it was part of my March
economic statement it has been part of the overall
economic of the Government economic strategy that we been
putting in place, not simply with the Budget, but with a
whole range of activity through 1991 including the March
Statement and the Special Premiers Conference process.
For a Labor Government, nothing is more distressing than
high unemployment. Ladies and gentlemen, we could have
artificially changed the economic climate and created
hothouse jobs.
But there is nothing more cruel than creating the hope of
secure employment and then seeing it fade away like a
hothouse plant dumped out in the cold.
We are not prepared to allow the economy to fall back into
the cyclical boom and bust habit which has characterised it
for too long.
We are about reforming the structure of the economy which
means that some hard decisions have been taken, and will
continue to be taken.
Take tariff reform. You might think that the quickest way to
get people to buy Australian would be to tax imports so that
the Australian products can compete on price.
But protection is like the banning of books. It doesn't
prevent the new ideas competing with the old, and it doesn't
do anything for the efficiency or security of industry
either. Just the opposite.
We cannot and will not simply rely on tariff protection for
Australian products. We will create an internationally
competitive economy. We will help them become more
competitive in Australia and overseas.
Part of that help is the S2 million provided to continue the
Australian Made campaign in my March Statement.
Then, I said, it was because " reducing our reliance on
imports is totally complementary, in economic terms, to
expanding our performance in exports." And we have made some
great strides toward improving our export performance
especially in the crucial area of manufactured exports.
In the seven years, 1983 1990, the value of manufactured
exports increased at an annual average rate of 17%, rising
from 2.9 billion in 1983/ 4 to S7.6 billion in 1989/ 90.
lOon
The volume of goods and services exports, rose by 13% in
1990-91 with manufactured exports rising by 25.5%
That is a demonstration of the fundamental changes in the
economy working through. In the Budget the balance of goods
and services is forecast to be in surplus in 1991-2 for the
first time since 1979-80.
Australians can compete on world markets, provided we work
harder, and we think smarter.
But Government can only create the conditions for economic
success and a high qual: lty of life. At the end of the day
it comes down to individuals-to make it happen.
The Australian Made Campaign's efforts since 1986 to licence
Australian Made products~ is a good example of self-help in
action. Before earning the right to display the Australian Made
certification mark on their products, local industries are
assisted by the Campaign to put their own house in order in
terms of the quality and local content of their goods.
In return, Australian Mlade licensees derive considerable
advantage from the right to display what is undoubtedly one
of Australia's most familiar symbols the distinctive green
and gold kangaroo.
With the Campaign's encouragement, more and more local
producers have realise the benefit to be gained from the
marketing edge offered by a clearly identifiable national
product. The Campaign now plans to supplement its licensing
activities with two important new initiatives, both of which
extend the self-help concept.
The first initiative is the Australian Made Product
Directory, a copy of which I was pleased to receive some
weeks ago.
The Directory is the first ever comprehensive guide to
Australian Made licensees and their products, and it goes a
long way toward informing both the public and private
sectors of the wide range of quality Australian goods on
offer. The Campaign's new iniLtiatives offers Australian Made
licensees the chance improve the quality of their
products in order to enter export markets.
The Advance Australia Foundation has arranged for the
National Industry Extension Service and the Industrial
Supplies Office to assess the quality of licensees' products
for export quality, and advise on how quality can be
improved.
I am pleased to see that the public and private sectors are
collaborating to help Australian producers improve the
export quality of their products.
Self-improvement initiatives of this sort help our local
industries and therefore Australia meet the challenges
of a tough and increasingly competitive world.
The Government is also playing its part.
We have even, believe it or not, developed a kind of
portable igloo that we are selling to Eskimos and other
North Americans.
It was developed as a result of a deliberate purchasing and
specification decision by the Commonwealth Government's
Antarctic Division. They required a new kind of shelter for
scientists who had to stay away from their main base. The
result was an innovation that fitted our requirements in the
Antarctic, and could be exported to the Arctic too.
That is an example of a simple purchasing and specification
decision creating a new export product.
The total Government market is huge.
The Commonwealth alone spends some S10 billion each year,
and the States and Territories an additional $ 20 billion
We are not in the business of having some central command
system to compel all the agencies and departments of nine
governments on how to purchase that way of operating iLs
well and truly in the dustbin of history.
But we have launched the Purchase Australian campaign aimed
to promote the purchase of Australian ( and New Zealand)
goods and services by Government. It has raised the
awareness of government buyers to the advantages of local
goods and services, and is maximising local suppliers
opportunities. In addition, I launched the Environmental Futures Group,
headed by George Negus, earlier this year. One of the aims
of this group is to promote the use of Australian
environmentally suitable goods and services by the
government. In many areas Australian know-how is already a world beater.
You will see some of it in the new television commercials,
which celebrate our achievements in solar technology, boat
design, and the bionic ear, but every day, it seems to me,
we find out about something new that Australians have
invented or discovered.
Australia is a clever country.
But as you watch the television commercials over the next:
few months, I hope you don't say about the bionic ear, " I
didn't know we invented that!" I hope you already knew.
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What I do hope is that you will make Australia a definite
part of the decision making process when you are next
purchasing something anything. Food, technology, clothes
Ask yourself whether the imported product is as good as the
Australian alternative.
Ask yourself Where was it made? Who made it? Who benefits
from your purchase?
Have a look for the green and gold kangaroo that tells you
it is Australian Made.
But don't buy something just because it is Australian.
Buy it because it is betcer. 03