By CASEY NEILL
THE region’s new manufacturing spokesman said he fell into the industry, but now wouldn’t be anywhere else.
Adrian Boden took over as South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) executive officer from long-serving Paul Dowling last month.
Today he holds a degree in international business and speaks French, Italian and Spanish, but he started his studies as a linguist struggling with French at age 18.
He took a gap year to learn the language with plans to return to university.
“I had a job which was in a manufacturing company just outside Paris,” he said.
“They offered me a job after about three or four months.
“I stayed with them for 20 years in various places around the world and did my degree with them.
“Basically, I ended up at SEMMA because I was looking to do something a bit different from the corporate world and give back a little bit.”
What drives his passion for the sector?
“I think it’s seeing the end result of something,” he said.
It’s also manufacturing’s wide reach into everyday life that sparks Mr Boden’s enthusiasm.
“Everything is a result of manufacturing,” he said.
He said Australia’s manufacturing industry could be an easy target for negativity, with job losses often in the spotlight.
“But for every company that disappears you’ve probably got a new company being set up,” he said.
“Change is inevitable.”
He said when computers entered the machining sector there were concerns it would cost jobs.
“But then you forget that you need somebody to make the machine,” he said.
“It’s just a transition of a job.
“Manufacturing will always be here.
“It’s just whether we want it in this country or whether we want to buy stuff from somebody else.
“It’s very dangerous to have a country where you don’t make things.
“It sounds great to import everything but if the dollar keeps dropping, prices will just go up.”
Mr Boden said another danger was losing skill sets forever and having no choice but to import.
He said imports might have a lower cost price, but after adding supply chain costs could be more expensive than buying the same product from a company a few kilometres away.
He said manufacturers also needed to question whether they were doing the best job they could, and whether there were any opportunities to become stronger by joining with other companies.
Mr Boden said SEMMA could help with this collaboration, with more than 200 members it could connect with.
He said SEMMA could also assist the region’s manufacturers by lobbying the government on issues such as exporting.
“The free trade agreements need to have a fully balanced free trade perspective, where it is an equal playing field,” he said.
Mr Boden also wants to see governments buying local, and said SEMMA would try to influence this.
“If you’re buying a product here and you’re sustaining a job, then you’re sustaining a taxpayer, so your income,” he said.
“If you are no longer buying from your taxpayer, how do you get your income? Raise taxes.”
He said Australia had excellent engineers, very good technicians, and very creative people with a can-do attitude, but needed to transmit this image to the rest of the world.
“Even when we do have world-leading brands, most people have no idea it’s an Australian company,” he said.
He said Dandenong and its surrounds was known as a manufacturing heartland but also needed to better communicate its brand and what it meant.
“Good quality, good delivery, good costs etcetera,” he said.
“I think we have a brand to develop internally and we have a brand to develop externally.
“I’m hopeful we can influence some of the younger people, particularly in this area, to realise that they’ve got incredible job opportunities.
“You don’t have to go into the city to earn a living.”
He thinks his sales and marketing experience in the sector put him in a good position to assist.
“I hope I can communicate to manufacturing companies with their own language and vocabulary,” he said.
“I don’t particularly want it to be my opinion being transmitted, I must transmit the opinion of the manufacturers.”
Visit www.semma.com.au for more information about its members or getting involved.
