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CRAIG COMMENTS |
My “fortnightly whinge”
6th July 2006
The US-Australia “free trade” deal has raised its ugly head and has caused its first major casualty, the Federal Governments attempt to legislate to put foreign ownership limits on the proposed privatised Snowy Hydro Limited sale. This may have been the real reason that the Prime Minister was listening to the public outcry, as the legislation before Federal Parliament to limit foreign ownership was worthless because the free trade deal with Uncle Sam explicitly prohibits this type of uncompetitive protectionism. It would have been embarrassing. Could you imagine the implications if the Federal and State governments had pursued the Snowy sale further and the foreign share caps (which were promoted by the governments as addressing the concerns raised by federal MPs and the public) were deemed illegal? This would have caused the type of critical analyses of the impact of the US free trade agreement on Australia that neither side of politics who proudly supported the free trade deal would have welcomed.
It’s a pity that Australian governments -- both State and Federal -- don’t show the same enthusiasm for Australian business and home grown products as they show for the Socceroos and other successful Australian sporting endeavours. Like other national teams, the Socceroos proudly proclaim their pride in representing Australia and, together with their supporters, make no bones about letting the world know where they are from.
Not so with Australian products. Australians prefer home grown products but supermarket shelves are full of vaguely marked or deceptively labelled cheap imported goods from countries that do not produce with the same standards, quality or conditions that Australian businesses are obliged to fulfil. Consumers in other countries particularly in Asia and Europe seek out Australian products as they recognise the quality and standards of our agricultural industry. When or local shoppers are not afforded the same privilege.
In the interests of fair competition, soccer teams make sure that they are clearly identified and so should Australian products wherever they are sold. The Socceroos compete against teams that play under the same rules at home as they do in international competition (whilst some referees can’t be helped). It is not unreasonable to expect that in negotiating free trade agreements, the Australian government should recognise the unfair advantage of countries with a large pool of cheap labour, although some would argue that it is doing its best to create one.
It is estimated that there are seven million illegal migrants in the United States, (compared with an estimated total workforce of ten million in Australia), who are vulnerable to exploitation because of their fear of being repatriated. Many of these are employed in agriculture such as orange groves in Florida where they earn as little as $5,000 per annum. No US government is prepared to tackle this growing problem because too many businesses and farmers benefit from this source of cheap labour. The flip side is that Australian orange growers cannot sell home grown products and are going broke while the supermarket shelves are full of mostly imported orange juice.
It may mean cheaper goods for those who have money to buy them but it is making one almighty mess of our balance of trade. Australia does not have many natural advantages such as reliable rainfall, good soils and abundant cheap labour. We are importing more because Australian companies are moving offshore into cheaper labour areas and we are importing more because we are replacing Australian products with imported ones.
It is time to clearly mark all products on our supermarket shelves on the front of the packet with a standard logo proudly identifying what is Australian produce -- or if it’s just manufactured in Australia -- so all consumers can proudly support the “green and gold”.
