Manufacturing News

PM urged to unravel toilet paper issue

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) is calling on Kevin Rudd to heed warnings by the South Australian Government about major Australian job losses in the toilet paper manufacturing sector under a recent anti-dumping decision.

SA Premier Mike Rann has written a letter to Kevin Rudd asking him to reverse the Federal Government’s decision in January to lift anti-dumping duties on discounted toilet paper imported from Indonesia and China, which could cause “significant harm” to industry and Australian jobs in SA and Victoria.

AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell welcomed Rann’s urgent plea for Rudd to “take all reasonable steps to have this decision reconsidered”.

“Industry echoes Rann’s concerns and calls on the Prime Minister to intervene on this issue which gives imported toilet paper — possibly sourced from unsustainably managed forests — an unfair advantage at the ultimate expense of Australian manufacturing jobs,” Carnell said.

“Industry hopes Rudd can resolve this issue quickly by reinstating anti-dumping penalties on imported toilet tissue — if this doesn’t occur, local manufacturers will be put under more pressure to manufacture offshore, where costs are significantly lower.”

Industry estimates there are about 2000 jobs under threat from the decision, including at large manufacturing plants in the South East of SA and Box Hill in Victoria.

Other key facts about the Australian toilet tissue manufacturing industry:

· The Australian toilet tissue industry directly employs more than 1000 people and the total indirect employment is more than 2000 in Melbourne and the Mt Gambier Region.

· Almost 290 billion sheets of toilet paper are used each year in Australia

· 13,094 sheets of toilet paper are used by every man, woman and child in Australia each year

· The value of toilet paper sold in Australia each year is $856 million — that’s $38.67 per person or $107.42 per household*.

*Based on ABS Australian population figures of 22,138,000 (at 29/01/2010) and number of Australian households in 2009 being 7,968,400.

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