Thread: Australian Made vs Off-Shore.

Forgive me, I am not native to oz so I am still learning the ins and outs The situation is pretty much the same all over the world though.

In europe, I would say we have low skilled labour countries of our own in the east. Pull back all that manufacturing to those countries and out of china, pay a tad bit more for your stuff and rob china of their income and world domination plans. In our case, double win since the living standards in those area's rise and when the country becomes richer, the money flows back into the EU coffers anyway. Wishfull thinking, I know... In any case, I guess that is not possible in oz but regarding the australian made conversation; I have found australian products to be REALLY expensive. I know I live halfway across the world so that certainly does not help but damn.

Take redarc for example, "everybody" seems to love their products and I can certainly see why but a solar blanket for 2-bloody k?! A dc-dc all in one thingy for again 2k? That IS expensive you know. Now, I am not judging, really but I wonder if that is because there is a large markup for those products (say like the "apple tax") or because it is indeed made in oz? If so, production cost of local production is indeed high? I ended up getting a CTEK setup rather then redarc which can pretty much do the same for half the money (in euro's) what a redarc setup would cost me and those things are made in sweden (well designed anyway, not sure where the pcb is actually made...)

Again, don't get me wrong, I am a bit in love with australia, I can even see myself moving there one day but I simply don't know how everything works down under.

Cheers,
-P

Australia has a few "special issues" for manufacturing compared to elsewhere (not just China).

One is a relatively small local market, spread over a large area with poor and expensive transport compared to, say, Europe. Because of distance from other markets, transport for export is relatively expensive.

Another is that compared to many places, Australia has very restrictive regulation on environmental matters, labour laws, building regulations, etc - call this red tape. And there are others, such as power and infrastructure costs, all of them meaning manufacturing is more expensive than in most places.

But in my view, there are several more important factors.

The first of these is that Australian manufacturing grew from a very low level during WW2, simply because there was no choice - make it here or you can't have it, building on a low level that had started in WW1. After the war, this was kept up and expanded as a matter of government policy, enforced by very strong protection. This began to attract criticism by the 1970s, when increased travel and better communications allowed Australians to see just how much more they were paying for often inferior or limited manufactured goods compared to most of the world.

The beginning of the end was when the UK announced they were joining the EU (or Common Market as it was then), and that Australia's agricultural exports were going to lose their market there protected by Empire Preference. Primary producers began to get very unhappy about paying a lot of protection costs when they got no benefit from this protection. Protection was forced to be wound back, as Australia attempted to find new markets for their exports, including an increase in mining activity (mining has been a major industry in Australia at least since the 1850s, and it has since the 1970s exceeded agriculture in value) with these markets (initially Japan) demanded a reduction in protection for manufacturing. This led to generally benefits all round, except to manufacturers and their workforce, who were accustomed to getting treated a lot better than the rest of the community - and this expectation remains, in the form of red tape plus workplace conditions.

A second factor is that Australians are reluctant to invest long term - next quarter's bottom line is the all important figure. This means very few are prepared to invest in manufacturing. This attitude is strengthened by a culture and tax system that tends to penalise risk taking long term ventures.

And this also explains why most manufacturing in Australia is foreign owned - foreign companies tend to have a better view of long term ventures and value existing Australian manufacturers higher than the domestic shareholders. And once the venture is foreign owned, there is little commitment to keeping it here if somewhere else seems to be better.

And the other reason for the cost of manufacturing in Australia is simply that with a floating currency, kept high by the massive minerals and agricultural exports, imports tend to be cheaper, and most Australians like it that way, and have supported what has generally been bipartisan policies to keep it that way - a low exchange rate is seen as certain death at the polls!

nice summary JDNSW

From a European view though you develop a Byzantine set of local rules that are not in line with the rest of the world and make anyone who wants to export to you meet these rules. Where possible attempt to enforce these rules on industries in other countries. Do not allow other countries to do this to you as this is protectionism. Add in quotas for those who want to export where the local rules are not sufficient to deter imports that will compete with local industries that are important. And have the US pay for your defence

Don’t know if it’s been posted on AULRO before

YouTube

Gav 110 Don’t know if it’s been posted on AULRO before

She is right you know.

Originally Posted by 1950landy

I have a Chinese lawn mower ( best mower I have ever had) & it would not start last year , took it to three mower shops to get it looked at , as soon as I told them it was Chinese they just said throw it in the bin. I pointed out all the so called Australian mowers they were selling were made in Asia, & walked out. I rang the importer who gave me the phone no of the guy they to do there warranty work who told me what NGK spark plug to buy to fix it. started 1st pull.
In saying that I always try to buy Australian made 1st , but when these Australian Co's are selling Chinese made that probably come out of the same factory for four times the price . I buy the cheaper.

Next time you pick up a package, no matter how small, have a close shufti at it, & provided some one hasn't strategically placed a label over it you will usually see in the tiniest letters, "Made In China"

So much seems to made there & the branding tries to hide this fact. The above Lawnmower is an example.

Lying Retailers will just about swear on a stack of Bibles that this isn't so but after you get out the Leatherman (Made in the USA) out & want to have a scratch around, they relent usually with the words "Ah maaaate, everything is these days".

It doesn't help when one sees images as above [Page 1. Post#5 ] "Made in China" purposely concealing those words with a plastic cover in an endeavor to falsify the Country of Manufacture.


Something to hide maybe? Cannot be trusted? Ashamed of the product? Obviously.

Originally Posted by 4bee

Lying Retailers will just about swear on a stack of Bibles that this isn't so but after you get out the Leatherman (Made in the USA)

Made in the USA from local and imported components.......


Colin