An overwhelming majority of Australians believe coronavirus should serve as a wakeup call for the nation to start making more essential products here and for government to commit to buying domestically building products when constructing infrastructure.
The national poll, conducted by YouGov, found:
88% of Australians agree: “Coronavirus should serve as a wakeup call for Australia – that we should be making more essential products here and be less reliant on imports from China”
82% agree: “When the government builds infrastructure it should use Australian-made products (e.g. Australian-made steel) whenever possible, even if it costs more”
68% agree: “Coronavirus has made me more likely to look for Australian products to buy than I was before coronavirus”
AWU National Secretary Daniel Walton said the overwhelming results should send a clear message to decisions makers.
“Coronavirus should be the wake up call our leaders need to stop being petty and just get behind Australian jobs,” Mr Walton said.
“Now more than ever Australians want to be making our essential products here. We don’t want to be reliant on China. And we want Aussie infrastructure to be built from Aussie steel, aluminium, glass, and cement.
“Let’s break the addiction to cheap Chinese imported product. It’s a stupid false economy. Australian-made building materials are not only top quality, they’re globally competitive. But it’s pretty telling that even if they weren’t, four out of five people would want their infrastructure built from Aussie-made materials anyway.
“None of these poll results are a surprise. Of course Australians want to back Australian-made products. We always have. It’s only the government that’s lost sight of that in recent times.
“Hopefully our leaders will start getting the message now. If we back our own industries they’ll grow, become more competitive, and support more jobs. We make the best building materials in the world. We should be using them every time the opportunity comes up instead of relying on cheap imports.”