Anthony Albanese is channelling his inner Bob Hawke and urging the nation to get on board with “Team Australia” by buying locally made goods as a way to counter US tariffs. The pitch looks like it will be a major focus for this month’s upcoming budget as well, so it’s high time (any excuse) to take a look back at Hawke’s “True Blue” 1980s campaign.
What’s Albanese proposing for the upcoming budget?
The prime minister went on a radio blitz Wednesday afternoon to encourage Australians to buy locally made goods to help offset the impact of the new Trump tariffs on Australian aluminium and steel. As ABC News reported, invoking “Team Australia” would be a better way to respond than to clap back with “revenge” tariffs on US goods, which Albanese said would only fuel domestic inflation.
“Australians can have an impact by buying Australian goods,” Albanese said. “Buy Bundy rather than some of the American products … You can make a difference.”
The ABC reported sources with insight into the upcoming budget as saying it would have an “Australian-made” focus.
Last year’s budget was headlined “A Future Made in Australia” and featured production tax incentives for green hydrogen and processed critical minerals. The $22.7 billion package announced in May last year would “help make [Australia] an indispensable part of the global economy”, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in his 2024 budget speech.
Will it be a winning strategy?
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Well, Bob Hawke’s own “Australian Made” campaign didn’t hurt his prospects. In September 1986, 10 months before the Hawke government went to its second successful election, Hawke launched the campaign at the Opera House in Sydney, backed by the likes of Robert de Castella, Joan Sutherland and America’s Cup heroes Ben Lexcen and John Bertrand. As The Canberra Times reported at the time, Hawke pitched it as a way for consumers to help face the tough economic times of the mid-’80s.
“With the large depreciation of the dollar, Australian products are becoming more and more price competitive against imports,” Hawke said. “I believe also that we are seeing a steady improvement in the quality of Australian products.”
The launch of the green-and-gold kangaroo logo, which signified goods were made in Australia and is still used today, was aimed at fostering a “sense of shared pride” in the country’s products, Hawke said.
The message was reinforced through television ads featuring cockatoos, Weet Bix, Ford Falcons, Meadow Lea margarine, wind surfing, gratuitous America’s Cup references, Jeff Fenech, Mick Dundee and, ahem, Ansett. All set to the tune of “Hey True Blue” by John Williamson.
In 2012, Roy Morgan Research found 98.8% of Australian consumers recognised the logo and that 88.6% believed it gave them strong confidence that a product is made in Australia.
Did it work in WA?
There is a more recent example of a Labor leader seeking to harness patriotic consumer instincts to win votes and boost the economy. Western Australian Premier Roger Cook last month launched a “Made in WA” campaign, which he said would “put manufacturing back at the heart of the economy [and help] make more things in WA”.
It’s hard to say what electoral effect the campaign had, but, as with Hawke’s 1986 pitch, it certainly doesn’t appear to have hurt. WA Labor crushed the opposition in the March 8 election, so far winning 42 seats against the Coalition’s nine.
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