Australian Paper is calling on all government departments and public services to buy Australian made paper after pledging its support for the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union’s (CFMEU) Let’s Spread it Around campaign.
The union’s campaign is designed to encourage local employment and investment within the mining and construction manufacturing sectors. According to the union, multiple pressures, including the high Australian dollar, contributed to an estimated 52,000 manufacturing workers and 68,000 construction workers losing their jobs last year.
The union is also pointing its finger at the growing number of international workers claiming a temporary 457 visa to work locally.
In its support of this campaign, Australian Paper, which is the country’s only manufacturer of recycled office paper, is calling on the government to buy locally made paper to help ‘support the thousands of local jobs generated by Australia’s pulp and paper industry’.
For Jim Henneberry (pictured), Australian Paper CEO, the government represents the single largest national purchaser of paper and, as such, can help stem the influx of paper coming from Southeast Asia with its purchasing decisions.
“Benefitting from the high Australian dollar, imported papers from countries such as Indonesia, China and Thailand, are flooding into Australia while the valuable contribution of locally manufactured papers to our Australian economy, communities and jobs, is being ignored by many,” said Henneberry in a statement. “Together, Australia’s federal, state and local governments form the largest national paper buying group and we need their support for Australian manufacturing now more than ever before.
“Stronger government support for Australian made paper should also extend to our colleagues across the broader paper manufacturing industry including the packaging, tissue and newsprint sectors. The CFMEU’s Let’s Spread it Around campaign recognises the importance of local manufacturing and local jobs to healthy Australian communities.
“Governments at all levels are large users of paper and the campaign emphasises the important role local, state and federal governments can play in taking into account the value created by a major Australian manufacturing industry and the thousands of local jobs we support,” he said.
Australian Paper’s support of the campaign and the call for locally produced paper sourcing by the government come only a month after the CFMEU called on prime minister Kevin Rudd to support and protect the local paper and print industry by amending the federal government’s paper procurement policy.
The union’s grassroots campaign came after a major government paper supply contract was signed to a Thai supplier earlier in the year. The union said it would embark on a series of billboard and bus stop advertisements along with a postcard campaign, as part of the Let’s Spread it Around campaign.