Update - Is this product really made in Australia?

How can you find out if a product is really Made in Australia?

When you are shopping for yourself, a special gift or maybe a souvenir from your holiday in Australia, you would naturally prefer to buy an authentic Australian product but how do you know if it’s genuinely Australian made?

Under Australian government supervision, the Australian Made Campaign (AMC) was established approximately twenty five years ago to create and manage licence system for Australian Made manufacturers who can apply for licence registration and use the Australian Made logo on the product at the point of sale.

Only authorized licensees of the Australia Made Campaign can use the famous green and gold "Australian made" logo. Interestingly the Australian public's recognition of the Australian made triangle logo is incredibly high and is understood to be over 95%. That is higher than most famous international fashion brands.

This requires that the applicant meet the strict conditions of the Australian Made Campaign in that the licensed product must genuinely manufactured in Australia, not just repacked or slightly changed.

With the Australian made licence system in place it should be easy for a buyer to ascertain whether a product is genuinely made in Australia or not.

Are there really instances of illegal use of the AMC logo? Unfortunately yes. In recent years there have been several cases where there some manufacturers have deliberately and illegally used the Australian made logo on their products when it was not true. We suspect there are several local companies who claim to be Australian Made quilt manufacturers when they are not truly an Australian manufacturer.

Before you buy a product at least look up the manufacturer on the AMC web site to see if they are registered but it’s not that simple as some local manufacturers import some of their range and manufacture some products in Australia.

Imported products cannot use the Australian made logo and importers, distributors will be investigated and if found guilty they can be prosecuted and fined. There have been several cases in recent years of successful prosecutions for the AMC logo misuse and in one case it actually involved bed quilts, (the company was found to be guilt and was heavily fined) so please check carefully.

All of the Kelly & Windsor Australia bedding products are made in Australia. Not some, all of them and we are very proud of that.

Trevor with Ian Harrison, CEO of the Australian Made Campaign at the Hume Council breakfast event "How the Australian Made Campaign can assist exporters" May 2017

NEWS UPDATE

An interesting update on the above article -

The Australian made Campaign's web site recently posted news on 29th October 2018 quoting a recent prosecution for misleading product labelling.

Quote from AMC site -

"When consumers buy Australian made they know they are buying quality products which have been made to Australian standards and designed for Australian conditions. They have the comfort of having access to local sales support if something goes wrong and knowing that their dollars are going back into the local economy and supporting Australian jobs

“The best way for consumers to identify authentic Aussie products is to look for the famous green and gold kangaroo logo, which means they are genuinely ‘Australian Made’” said Mr Lazzaro. (CEO of the Australia Made Campaign)

We agree