Fashion industry pins survival strategy on new Australian-made push

The Australian Fashion Council has launched a 10-year strategy to revitalise local manufacturing capabilities. (Supplied: Cotton Australia)

The fashion industry has launched its first national road map to rebuild local manufacturing capabilities as it grapples with supply chain interruptions caused by the war in the Middle East.

The Australian Fashion Council's (AFC) national manufacturing strategy, developed in partnership with R.M. Williams, is the result of a year of consultations with more than 300 stakeholders, including manufacturers, brands, educators and policymakers in the textile, clothing and footwear sectors.

"There's definitely a lot of concern in the industry about what the future is for fashion textile manufacturing," AFC general manager Samantha Delgos said.

Samantha Delgos says geopolitical tensions show the importance of local manufacturing capabilities. (Supplied: Australian Fashion Council)

Over the past 12 months, the industry has suffered from geopolitical tensions, global tariffs and now the war in the Middle East.

Ninety-seven per cent of Australia's clothing and textile products are manufactured offshore, which Ms Delgos says involves "complex supply chains".

"Often [the garments] travel across multiple continents before it comes back to Australia or gets exported, and so those costs kind of add on each time it's travelling, and being exported as well," she said.

Experts say the local industry has been in decline for decades, with just 3 per cent of the clothing produced by local brands and designers made in Australia.

Ms Delgos emphasised that the plan was not about competition or restoring large-scale manufacturing.

"We can kind of look at best practice of what's happening internationally so that we can really start to grow and scale," she said.

Benefits to cotton industry

The 10-year strategy is split into three sections — public procurement, revitalising the workforce and investing in modern machinery — and has the potential to greatly benefit Australia's cotton industry.

Australia is a global producer and exporter of cotton. (Supplied: Cotton Australia)

Despite being a major producer and exporter of cotton, Australia does not have the capability to spin the material, which is often sent to South-East Asia.

"It's the missing link here in Australia — that's where the fibre is turned into a yarn," Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay said.

Adam Kay says an increase in fuel prices due to the war in the Middle East could hurt the fashion and textiles industry. (Supplied: Adam Kay)

Mr Kay said most of Australia's major spinning mills had closed down because of labour costs.

Part of the strategy now is to focus on how technology can help bring that process back onshore.

"The modern spinning mill, although they're very expensive to build, has very little labour because they're so automated," Mr Kay said.

Part of the new strategy by the Australian Fashion Council is exploring how new technology can support local manufacturing. (Supplied: Cotton Australia)

Cotton Australia represents the 1,500 cotton producers across the country, with its chief executive, Mr Kay, concerned about how businesses would be affected by rising fuel costs.

He says he expects a repeat of the COVID years when "we saw crazy increases in shipping costs".

"I hope we don't but, unfortunately, people do pass on their increased costs and, at the end of the day, it comes back down the line, he said.

Processing cotton in new spinning mills involves less labour and more automation. (Supplied: Cotton Australia)

Mr Kay said the war in the Middle East was a reminder of the importance of improving domestic capability.

"It's important that we can manufacture some of these things, and whilst food obviously is more important than clothing, which is a more discretionary item, it's still important," he said.

"People like to be fed, but they also like to be clothed."

Focus on Australian-made

On top of investing in new technology, the strategy is about activating and driving demand for Australian-made goods.

Tara Moses, chief operating officer of R.M.Williams', one of the only completely Australian-made local brands, said the government had an opportunity to drive the initiative.

Tara Moses says it's important that the government continues using local brands for public uniforms. (Supplied: RM Williams )

"One of the biggest things that government already does today is, it buys lots of products, it buys lots of garments, it buys lots of footwear, and we want to, with the coordinated industry approach, make government procurement focused," she said.

This includes, for example, defence uniforms.

The final pillar of this strategy is empowering a future workforce.

Australia's fashion and textile industry contributes about $28 billion to the national economy and employs almost 500,000 workers. (ABC News: Daniel Irvine)

Currently, Australia's fashion and textile industry contributes about $28 billion to the national economy, employing almost 500,000 workers.

Despite this, workers are paid on average $30,000 less than in other areas of manufacturing.

"Not only do we need more sort of training pathways ... but there's also other things that need to be done in terms of raising those wages and raising visibility and perception of the viability of that as a career path," said Dr Harriette Richards, from the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University.

Dr Harriette Richards wants the government to take the fashion industry seriously. (ABC News: Scott Jewell )

She believes this is because fashion and textiles are seen as a feminised industry, with women making up 58 per cent of its manufacturing workforce.

"So there's a sense of it as being insignificant or unimportant," Dr Richards said.

She is urging the government take the industry seriously, particularly as workforces across the world start to change.

"It seems like weekly, if not daily, we're seeing job cuts in big private-sector companies, so we're needing to think about future jobs for our young people," she said.

"If we don't jump on this opportunity now, the boat will sail and we'll lose those skills entirely

"I can see the opportunities here and [the AFC] made an incredibly strong case, but that's the piece that I am concerned about, whether there will be that buy-in and uptake from government to ensure its success, because historically there just hasn't been the same generosity."

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In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Tim Ayres, said: "The Albanese Labor Government’s Future Made in Australia agenda is the biggest pro-manufacturing package in Australia’s history."

"The government wants to see a thriving local fashion and textile, clothing and footwear sector, delivering jobs and economic opportunity for Australians," the spokesperson said.

"That’s why government funds initiatives to power industry, including the Industry Growth Program (IGP) which is open to the fashion and textile sector.

"The latest round of IGP grants saw close to $5 million awarded to Xefco for the commercialisation of their technology to improve the sustainability of dyeing textiles."

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