Charles Wooley: The quest for Aussie-made products is an expensive exercise

China’s trade embargo has me looking for Australian products – and they’re hard to find, even down to the most Aussie invention ever – the humble swag, writes Charles Wooley.

THIS Christmas I set out determined to establish state of origin before I bought stuff.

Otherwise, it seemed feckless and unwise to make purchases from a country that was positioning itself clearly as our enemy, which had declared a cold war on our democracy and a trade war on our exports but which was filling our trading emporia with a massive range of everyday goods, seemingly to the exclusion of product made anywhere else.

In that resolution I am sure I was not alone.

So, I hope you fared better than I did.

My most salutary experience came a week before Christmas when I decided to buy one of the boys a swag. What can be more Australian than a swag?

Yet when I visited one of our biggest outdoor outfitters, I discovered it was as if there was nothing at all Australian about a swag.

There were many swags on sale, but they were all Chinese.

And to be fair, while I am not qualified to comment on their quality, I must say that they were cheap.

But it had been a week during which the CCP had been especially aggressive towards Australia forcing me to patriotically consume more local lobster, more of our wine and even more beer brewed from Australian barley.

Perhaps I was becoming dyspeptic from too much of a good thing but the barrage of insults from Beijing was finally getting to me.

The warrior wolves had brought out the little pig in me and no matter how hard they huffed and they puffed I was not going to buy a Chinese swag.

“I would like to see your range of swags,” I said to a pleasant young bloke in the camping section of the big national chain store which shall remain nameless because I don’t want to get him into trouble.

“But do you have any not made in China?”

The sales assistant went through the motion of searching the labels. The information was buried in the tiniest print in well hidden places suggesting that ‘made in China’ is not a selling point like ‘made in Italy’.

The selling point is the price. Who makes it is best never mentioned.

These swags were cheap. Just how cheap I was yet to discover when I located an Australian product elsewhere.

The poor assistant eventually gave up and admitted his company only seemed to sell the Chinese product.

“But we do have a lot of people coming in now and asking where things are made and wanting to buy from Australia or some other country and not from China.”

“Have you told the boss?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Mate, I don’t think he cares as long as they sell.”

I talked to an older bloke a bit higher up the system and pursued the idea of an Australian swag.

“Oh, I don’t think they are made in Australia.”

I persevered, “But mate, it is an Australian invention. It has been Australian since the mid-eighteen-hundreds. Ever heard of the jolly swagman?”

(By now I think I knew why that poor bugger jumped into the billabong).

But the salesman did know where I was coming from. He had heard it all before: “Well, we do get a lot of people coming in today and wanting to buy stuff made in Australia but there isn’t a lot to buy. In the end though most people don’t care where it’s made as long as it’s cheap.”

Of all the insults hurled our way by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China the one I cannot dispute is the denunciation that “Australia is a foolish country.”

Still, I wasn’t giving up.

I remained at least half sure that somewhere in the vast 7.692 million square kilometres of Australia there had to be a swag maker.

In front of the sales-bloke I googled the subject and gulped. A swag that looked a lot like one the CCP and its mates can knock up in China and sell here for $150, were it made in Australia would cost me $490 plus $80 for shipping.

But now I was on my patriotic high-horse and pointedly made my online purchase right there in the shop.

The bloke must have thought I was mad.

I bought the swag from an outfit called Southern Cross Canvas Products and they delivered promptly and efficiently. It looks to be good quality of robust material well stitched and with comfy padding to sleep on.

While the young fella might have been happy, my wallet wasn’t.

The kid was happy.

I would like to tell you more about the brave lonely Australian manufacturer of such an iconic Aussie product, so I rang them in Victoria only to get a recorded message, “We are closed over the Christmas break”.

Well, good on them. They are probably all out in the bush camping in their swags. I hope they get a staff discount.

But perhaps if more of us bought the Australian product the price would come down and market economics suggest they would still make a bigger profit.

Then they might even afford to hire someone to take calls during the camping season. But perhaps not.

I hear from the Trade Minister that the Chinese swag-makers don’t take his calls either.

Even though they are doing really well.