Food for thought?

[macca]

Should we be buying Chinese?


In Australia we have Workers Rights and good conditions in the work place, Unions protecting the workers from unscrupulous management practices, OH&S, Toolbox meetings, Environmental Considerations, leisure Time, Public Holidays, Holidays, Social Clubs, Family involvement... the list goes on.

It is not unreasonable to go to work and safely return to your own home at the end of your day or swing if you work FIFO etc.

We breathe clean air, swim in and drink clean water and have reasonable services to give us a good quality of life.

I wonder how many workers in China can say the same.

We all are aware that a lot of the above costs money, from what I can understand that money is not spent in China on the country or on its workers. Hence the very low manufacturing costs.

We cannot compete with them so our factories close down and the jobs go overseas.

I have a mate who imported a product from China for $4.00 free in store, that is delivered to his address. That item sold for $200. People were happy to pay it and he is a very wealthy man. He said if one fails we just send them a new one, doesn’t cost us much and they say what nice people we are.

Take a look at toasters and kettles, buy them for $8 in one of our local stores, we used to repair them when apprentices. Now, throw it out and get a new one. They cannot cost much to make.

This work is all going to China as well as other countries especially in Asia.

Soon our major suppliers of food is going to come from these places, do we know what chemicals are being used for fertiliser or in the water or atmosphere where they are grown. Our Australian dairy herds are being bought and shipped to China at an alarming rate, soon the milk we drink will be Chinese. You saw what they added to infant formula, what guarantees do we have of a quality product being delivered here.

We make a big deal of looking after the environment here in Australia, yet buy products where we don’t see the damage caused by industrial waste and think it is all right.

I am having a serious think about buying anything Chinese made, my wife will not buy their food products and I am leaning that way after recent experiences.

To add to the mix the big end of (China) town is buying the world, our iron ore deposits are being bought by Chinese interests which are in partnership with their Government. Our Leaders are flat out selling any assets they can. WTF.

This is my rambling, and would really like to hear your opinions to be better informed.

Cheers Macca

[NissanGQ4.2]

I thought you were talking about Chinese food for a minute, yum I love Chinese food :)

Yeh well unfortunately because I don't get paid a sh!t load and get taxed a sh!t load and what not, I will continue 2 buy imported crap.

And don't worry the jobs will come back to Australia one day............. only because they will be all living over here :)

Because as people say "This is Gods country"

I say bring in one world currency and award pay rates *L*

[threedogs]

WOW what they do, kill your dog? They do seem to be taking over slowly . You might also be suprised how much product including straps that are made in China. Op loc, ARB and TJM had straps made in Aust . Dont know where they are made now but would guess China. Most stuff is manufactured there to keep costs at a minimum, If you can controll quality you have a winner. Its not worth being Australian made as now its just a sticker

[Steve4wdin]

Well said macca, a lot of food we buy from nz can actually come from china. Food for thought , do we remember jap crap? now if it is made in Japan it is good. Unfortunalty it will be the same for china. I definatly don`t believe anyone other than australians should be aloud to buy our resources or land. We can`t buy in china, we can`t buy in america.

[macca]

Threedogs what got me going was a quote we got this week for a job we are about to do.

Im a sparky and we need a 63 amp main switch.

NHP a well respected brand cost $160+GST, Some unknown brand from China $16.50+GST.
What the hell is going on? I would not use the cheap one as its going on a $1/2 million machine and I dont want ANY problems.
Any thing can fail, just want to minimise the risk.

Where my attitude come from is some counterfiter in China copied an Aussie power point, the plastic and metal components were not up to scratch.
This caused a fire and could of easily killed someone. The sparky bought them on the net from OS, so he was the importer and is in all sorts of trouble. He will lose everything.
As they look exactly like what he had been using he thought they were OK and didnt realise they came from OS, doesnt seem to matter.

Steve, my wife is onto that scam about food coming through NZ and is very cautious about buying their exports as well. A sneeky loophole in NZ law that one.

If I was happy to buy the product for the price thats fine, its the crap stuff that is passed off that is frustrating.

Then there is compliance.

Keep it coming, other points of view are really valuable in subjects like this.

Cheers Macca

[Winnie]

A sparky in my area (no I will not say who) uses those Clipsal knock off GPOs from China. He buys them for about $3 each. They don't have Aus standards and so are ILLEGAL to use. When we sell the real deal for $5 (Australian made!!) in carton quantities, is it really worth saving $2 and doing a sub par job? You're gonna sell that GPO for $17 or around that. We have been losing quotes due to another wholesaler offering a heap of cheap Chinese crap and not passing them off as Clipsal and Hager products.

Tappa tappa

[Rustyboner81]

yeah bro, quality from overseas is ok, crap is crap. i try to buy aussie made but sometimes its difficult.
i immigrated over here with my family when i was a child, i love this country my girl is from korea she loves this country, we gotta hold onto to it
its only a matter of time.
guys if you all can just take 5 minutes to think about you next purchase thats a start. no one is saying go without or boycot just spare a thought for where the aussie dollar is going, where the product is coming from and is it a quality of product that you would be happy with either protecting your home from electrical fires or stopping your car safely on the freeway when your doin' 100km/hr

good thought Macca

[MC97GQ]

Hi Guys,

I thought I would weigh into this one, and regale you with a tale from personal experience.

When we moved from Sydney to the High Country, my wife decided she wanted to get all new wool blankets for the beds in the new house.
We went to Harvey Norman and they had a sale on Onkaparinga blankets, now I've been to Onkaparinga in Sth Aus and I thought good, Aussie made, not now they are made in China from Aussie wool, AND THEY WEREN"T CHEAP!. I was a bit peeved to say the least. After doing some research we found a mob in Tassie, Waverly wool blankets. They were made in Tasmania, by Australians from Australian wool and they were about 75% of the price of Onkaparinga.

If you look around you can still find quality aussie products at reasonable prices, they wont be as cheap as the Product of China. But with name brands that have now moved to China and elsewhere, there are still Aussie brands that can give a run for their money. Another example is Rossi Boots made in Sth Aus and better than a Blundstone boot(now made in China) any day.

Here is a website I use a bit, thought i might add it for interest http://www.onlyoz.com.au/

BUY AUSTRALIAN

Mark

[Silver]

thanks for raising these thought provoking issues.

I wonder about the future for our kids. Like preceding generations, they'll come through, but there is the question of quality of life.

Driven as we are by the $$ our manufacturing has disappeared to a large degree overseas.

And we import skilled labour under 457 visas rather than train up apprentices etc.

Then there are the media reports about mining, that those big trucks, and downstream transport will be automated, and controlled from Perth.

China will eventually price itelf out of the market, apparently, but then India will step up.

On a related issue, people with jobs often work heaps and heaps of hours, hopefully get penalty rates or some sort of equivalent. Usually there is a choice about whether to work the longer hours, sometimes not. After all that we pay a lot of tax. Where does a big chunk of that money go? Welfare payments including to people who can't get a job, in part because of all those hours worked by those in the jobs.

I confess I can't see a solution - but love reading the thoughts people have expressed so far.

[threedogs]

Hey Macca I'm on your side, thinking the patent has run out on heaps of products. there seems to be heaps of copies at the moment. roof top tents, 30 sec tent, Tirfor hand winch. I don't know how these switches you describe pass the AS safety side of things. As with all copies they are just theives .

[AB]

Silver is on the money here. China is starting to get a middle class now as opposed to only rich or poor communities.

Prices in china are slowly rising as wages and demand increase and India will become the next major manufacturers followed by Africa.

[taslucas]

We've all done it, jump on the net scroll through lots of items and then get the cheapest. Walk into the supermarket get the cheapest stuff we can. Go looking for fruit and veg but for some reason where the produce is from is far down the list of considerations...

BUY LOCAL....

BUY LOCAL....

[Outrage]

Working in engineering, we source quotes for valves, steel sections/pipes, etc. Recently we had lost the last large quantity pipe and coating manufacturers. (Still small scale factories around, but can't supply enough for pipelines). All simply down to the reason they can't compete with China. The difference is with these large quantity orders, suppliers actually hold sway over the 'good' factories in china (yes there are some), they produce valves/pipe etc at near equivalent quality to america/europe, at 1/3 the cost. Can't compete with that. And how can the companies run buying Aus past there finance team when quality is only about a 10% drop, but buying Aus will cost $1.5m opposed to $0.5m Chinese.

It's breaking our industry, in this money driven world only government ruling could stop it, but then what's to say that government ruling might actually make it worse. The major project companies are global these days, if Aus gov says you must only source Aus products, the company might not go ahead with big projects in Aus anymore, as they could do two similar projects in a different country for the same total cost, and make twice the profit.

For other industries, things tend to be smaller scale and thus the poor factories in china do the work, in engineering, suppliers don't even give customers looking for cheaper options the names of these places as they don't want 'any' association at all. Quite scary to know people buy only based on price sometimes.

[Tarous]

Food is the need of our body. We can't live healthy life without eating food. In my opinion healthy food is best for eating. Fruits and vegetables both are natural food and best for health. I like to eat vegetables and fruits daily because these food provide energy. I suggest everyone to eat these food.

[the ferret]

Fish n chips anyone??? I don't think so, not for this little rabbit!!
http://fishwrecked.com/forum/basa-fillets-warning
Cheers, the ferret.

[AB]

I don't want to know where some of the stuff comes from that we buy from the supermarket.

We need to team up and share homegrown food...lol

I'll supply eggs...LMAO

[macca]

Fish n chips anyone??? I don't think so, not for this little rabbit!!
http://fishwrecked.com/forum/basa-fillets-warning
Cheers, the ferret.

My wife has thought this for a few years now, she will enjoy reading that, reinforces what she has been saying, god bless her.

Knew she wasn't trying to poison me LOL

[the ferret]

My wife has thought this for a few years now, she will enjoy reading that, reinforces what she has been saying, god bless her.

Knew she wasn't trying to poison me LOL

Yes, it's nice to go out for a meal too, but even the Barramundi is not unique to Australia.
Thailand and Vietnam also have it, and odds on when you order it and pay top dollar for a piece, that's where it comes from.
I call it "Vietnamese POO swimming fish"
Cheers, the ferret.

[MC97GQ]

I don't want to know where some of the stuff comes from that we buy from the supermarket.

We need to team up and share homegrown food...lol

I'll supply eggs...LMAO

AB,

As I can supply eggs as well we might all have to become eggatarians,

Although we just got two poddy lambs yesterday, I wanted to call them Chop and Roast, but the missus and kids wont have a baaaaa of that(sorry about the pun). Looks like they'll be lawn mowers.

Mark

[the ferret]

Are they "ball bearing" lawn mowers or ewes??
Some lambs you can get to LAY!!........













Longways on a SPIT!!! cheers, the ferret.

[macca]

Yes, it's nice to go out for a meal too, but even the Barramundi is not unique to Australia.
Thailand and Vietnam also have it, and odds on when you order it and pay top dollar for a piece, that's where it comes from.
I call it "Vietnamese POO swimming fish"
Cheers, the ferret.

Telling her about this link thismorning.

She told me about our local seafood restaurant serving her Barra that tasted like mud, she wouldn't eat it.

Said there is no way that is Australian as the menu said. Needless to say she has not returned.

Cheers Macca

[the ferret]

Telling her about this link thismorning.

She told me about our local seafood restaurant serving her Barra that tasted like mud, she wouldn't eat it.

Said there is no way that is Australian as the menu said. Needless to say she has not returned.

Cheers Macca

Mushy Barra is not Aussie Barra, but muddy Barra can be lol.

[MC97GQ]

Are they "ball bearing" lawn mowers or ewes??
Some lambs you can get to LAY!!........

Longways on a SPIT!!! cheers, the ferret.

Nice post Ferret, I had a little giggle, we have one of each, but they are siblings.

Plenty of sheep down here, so we might get him nutted and get another ram thrown over her.

Mark

[the ferret]

Nice post Ferret, I had a little giggle, we have one of each, but they are siblings.

Plenty of sheep down here, so we might get him nutted and get another ram thrown over her.

Mark

If you are keeping him as a mower, get him nutted now, or he'll just be a butter, been there and done that!!
Cheers, the ferret.