It is nice to be able to buy Australian made goods when we can, but for those Australian shoppers that are “over excited” about buying non Australian made goods, please just give yourself a little reality check.

The first reality is that for every dollar paid, for most consumer goods made in China, almost exactly 10% of that retail price is the price paid for the item to the Chinese manufacturers.

By far the majority of the other 90% is made up of margins paid to Australians in the supply chain like, Australian designers, Australian importers, Australian wholesalers, Australian retailers, and Australian freight companies and import duties to the Australian government, not to mention the first 10% of course which is Australian GST .

The second reality is that out of the 10% that the Chinese manufacturer company is actually paid, the biggest portion of that goes to pay their raw materials and energy costs.

And guess where a lot of that raw materials and energy costs money goes? Yes to Australian exporters of coal and metals and minerals etc.

If we just undertood these real numbers, they would see that buying Non Australian made goods is ALMOST as good to Australia as buying Australian made goods (if you can find any).

And right now, it is important that Australian consumers just buy goods of any origin, just as they normally would, and let the Australians in the supply chain that design and trade and ship and transport and deliver and warehouse and package and retail those goods, make their living.

So how about we ask the Australian media about cutting back on the hype and reporting the actual situation. The Australian Unions also, who contributed the most to the export of all manufacturing jobs from this country, should also focus on protecting some of the above industries that employ a lot more of their members as well as those few left in Australian manufacturing.