Fraser Live
I'm not surprised that the Blundstone Footwear factory in Tasmania is going to close because of competition from imports but I am surprised that it took so long. Undoubtedly it was sustained by generous federal and state government panhandling in the guise of assisting it to become more efficient.
Both sides of politics have turned bullshit into an art form as they have progressively removed protection from the TCF industries with one hand while pretending to assist it to survive on the other. In the case of Blundstone, the handouts only served to prolong the death of manufacturing in Tasmania. They were never going to revive it and retailers were always going to be fixated by price and therefore favour imports.
The facts are plain enough. If Australia wants to play on the world trade stage and gain low (or no) duty access to other county's markets, it must offer import access to our markets. Clothing, textiles and footwear have traditionally been the most protected of all Australia's secondary industries and so they are the ones to be choked first. The general duty rate on footwear stands at 10 per cent,(clothing is 17.5 per cent) plus GST. Developing countries have a concession of five per cent. By 2015 footwear will enter virtually duty free, save for a possible tiny revenue duty.
By the end of this year, Blundstone's 350 footwear specialists will be free to I suppose you could say that at least the brand won't be lost and most people might not notice the subtle change in the 'made in' label. So apart from the 350 jobs what else is lost?
For me it is the pleasure of wearing something made by a fellow Australian. Thai and Indian factory workers are good people, no doubt, but their shoes won't have the magic of Tassie.
A crime has been committed!
Just when I thought my international campaign to banish button-down collars in men's shirts was doing pretty well - having flushed them out of most department stores and fashionable men's boutiques - my friend Ken appeared recently with six new shirts over his arm, all with button-down collars. I couldn't believe there was still a retailer out there that hadn't been profoundly affected by my media blitz.
Well there isn't. Ken had bought all the shirts buttondownless, and had then gone to his favourite alteration establishment (upstairs above a shop and smelling powerfully of camphor and steamed wool) and instructed a bemused seamstress to add buttonholes and buttons to all the collars. Yes, add them! Why? Because he thinks they look neater. On some of the more cutaway collars the button is peculiarly located above his collarbone.
After this betrayal, I'm finding it difficult to speak to him.
Stafford about to blast the airwaves
Be on the lookout for some interesting announcement from the Stafford Group, Australia's leading menswear company. CEO Maurice Lubansky tells me that over the next couple of months his company is going to go public on some of the injustices of our social system, and not only from an apparel viewpoint - although copying and label counterfeiting will be part of it as will exposing some of the improper and illegal practices in manufacturing and retailing.
Maurice bemoans the gulf between law and justice - which is often why, he believes, people break the law.
In many ways, the Stafford Group is Australia's most remarkable clothing company. It directly employs some 700 people and still makes its top selling Anthony Squires suit in Australia. Maurice says this is because Squires sells on quality rather than price.
The company can trace its history back to Charlotte Cohen who registered a small clothing company in Melbourne in 1893. The Lubansky family bought the company in 1946 and changed the name to Stafford Clothing to in 1948. Its history from there makes fascinating reading - contained and condensed in the company's pocket diary, which is also still made in Australia.
Maurice himself has headed the company for a staggering 61 years. He is now 82 and is still ambitious and enthusiastic about business and about broader issues. He has children and grand children working at Stafford but they don't move up the various ladders unless they earn it.
Last October the company manufactured its five millionth Anthony Squires suit which is now worn by the Treasurer, Peter Costello as a gift not from the company but from the Stafford staff.
Stafford has been responsible for developing and marketing many innovations in menswear, the latest being the 1096 two trouser suit, guaranteed for three years and one day. The 1096 was launched in 2005 and has been a great marketing success.