Imported furniture

Reporter: Gavin Alder
Broadcast Date: November 26, 2008

Imported furniture from Asia fails to conform to Australian safety standards and environmental targets that Australian made furniture has to meet.

Soon you may not even have the option to buy Australian made because furniture makers here are being driven into bankruptcy by the big retail chains out to maximise their own profit.

A furniture industry insider has built his business fixing the shoddy work done overseas.

"I only ever see the cheap stuff out of Asia, the only Australian stuff I see is usually a delivery fault so it's not actually a fault in the furniture," they said.

"Pretty much 90 per cent of our work is brand new furniture that's got defects and faults."

Australian furniture makers are going broke. When the massive Queensland based Super Amart chain ditched its loyal local furniture manufacturers, five factories closed down.

Kevin Feldman's Brisbane business survived but only just.

"It's been a mortal blow to the industry. Four or five businesses have shut down completely, others have had to downsize considerably," he said.

"Eight months ago we had 90 employees. We were running three shifts a day."

Now he is down to half that.

But every time a local factory closes it is more than jobs that are lost.

It may also mean less choice for consumers.

Australian made furniture has to comply with strict standards, limiting the amount of toxic substances like formaldehyde.

Imported furniture does not have to meet those standards.

We should point out there are retailers who strongly support Australian made furniture.