Arthur Gorrie
Free trade and economic rationalism can have strange and seemingly irrational side-effects, some good and some potentially disastrous for businesses facing critical electricity and wage cost rises.
Just ask Michael Agnew, director of Gympie clothing manufacturer Drummond and Kindred, part of a troubled and some say dying industry, the once-great Australian rag trade.
Mr Agnew said the company’s factory, in Derrilin Dve, had been around for a long time, employing Gympie people and notably providing rural fire fighters with the flame retardant overalls they need to protect life and property.
But that does not mean it has been easy, he says, telling of fluctuating employee numbers according to business conditions, including the coming and going of important government contracts.
An irony of outcomes from the free trade/economic rationalism philosophy generally abroad in the land, is that Mr Agnew’s business does not supply its protective clothing to the Queensland rural fire fighting service, because the contact they would seek is held by a supplier in Victoria.
And that is where Drummond and Kindred has to sell its competing product, under a supply contract with the Victorian Government.
We send our product there, they send theirs here, Mr Agnew says – all of it by diesel-powered trucks.
It seems a strange way to cut down on fossil fuel use, something at the heart of one of the business’s major looming challenges – rocketing power prices.
Mr Agnew says the business now faces big wage increases as well.
“We’re facing a dilemma now, with the increase to wages, because I can’t make people work any harder than they do already.
“It’s very disheartening for businesses facing a 10 per cent increase in wage costs, allowing for superannuation.
The issue came up in state parliament last week, in a government response to a question on local preference policies affecting the Gympie company.
Gympie MP Tony Perrett asked Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan what consideration was given by the government in using Queensland manufacturers for urban firefighter clothing, which Drummond and Kindred also makes in Gympie.
Mr Ryan said the government’s “But Queensland” approach to procurement “puts Queensland jobs as a first priority.”
It “ensures informed decisions are made about how government funds are used to prioritise Queensland businesses, support local jobs in regional Queensland and achieve more positive outcomes in behalf of taxpayers.”
“I am advised by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services that to determine supply arrangements for uniform, personal protective equipment and equipment items, QFES conduct appropriate procurement processes within the Buy Queensland framework.”
The current supply contract for uniforms was undertaken in 2010 “and the successful vendor was selected in accordance with Queensland procurement policies at that time.”
Mr Ryan offered some hope to local manufacturers like Mr Agnew however.
“The QFES is planning to go to market for structural ensembles (including uniforms) in the near future and this procurement activity will be undertaken in line with all the principles outlined in the current policy (including) the Buy Queensland framework,” he said.