Pacific Brands chief executive Sue Morphet believes that if consumers had bought Australian, the 1,850 jobs at Pacific Brands would still be intact. Last month, the parent company of iconic Australian brands such as Bonds and King Gee announced it would move its local manufacturing offshore to China.
“Long, long gone are the days when Australians are actually prepared to pay more for Australian-made goods,” Morphet said. “The only time that we’ll pay for Australian goods is if they are giving us something that buying elsewhere or cheaper isn’t giving us.”
Morphet is not apologetic about the jobs lost, saying it was her job to cut manufacturing roles to save another 7,000 Australian jobs in the company.
“The rest of the company is propping up the local manufacturing and we can’t afford for that anymore,” she said. “A company such as ours has to make itself more flexible and one of the things that we can’t afford is the luxury of local manufacturing.”
What do you think about Sue Morphet’s comments?
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