Are you sick of hearing all the doom and gloom about Aus­tralia’s economy and the parlous state of the dollar? I certainly am, particularly since most of what is portrayed in the media just isn’t true. I am also sick of hearing that electronics manufacturing in this country is dead and buried. That just isn’t the case at all.

It is true that the manufacture of consumer electronics equipment in this country is long since gone but that is true of virtually every Western country in the world. As far as most people are concerned, and this applies to the media as well, electronics manufacturing in this country must be absent because it is invisible. But electronics manufacturing is thriving in this country even though most of it is done by privately-owned companies, not the large publicly-listed corporations. And some large concerns are doing well too. For example, Bosch, Siemens, Alcatel and others still make vast quantities of equipment and a good deal of it goes for export.

For our part, one of the frustrations is that we know some of the smaller companies and what they do but most of it is confidential and certainly not in the public domain. However, if you want to look for it, there is plenty of evidence of thriving electronics manufacturing. First, you have the booming electron­ics parts suppliers such as Dick Smith Electronics, Jaycar Elec­tronics, Altronics, Farnell Electronics, RadioSpares and so on.

And virtually every semiconductor and passive component manufacturer and test equipment maker in the world has either a direct presence or is represented in Australia. Together, all these companies are responsible for vast quantities of electronic components and electronic equipment being imported into this country. Why? For local manufacture. After all, you don’t imagine that it is all being purchased by electronics hobbyists to put together SILICON CHIP projects, do you?

And apart from SILICON CHIP, there are three electronics trade magazines and a number of associated titles also servicing the industry. Not bad, for an industry which is supposedly de­funct. And where do all these manufactured electronics products go? Quite a surprising quantity are exported.

Only recently, one of the most prominent financial commen­tators, Robert Gottliebsen, writing in "The Australian" wrote about the recent change in our terms of trade and the increase in exports. The export category which has had the biggest turnaround is "elaborately transformed manufactures". This is something that many bureaucrats and financial commentators thought would never happen. And guess what makes up a significant part of that "elaborately transformed stuff"? Yep, electronic equipment made in good old Australia.

So next time some talking head on TV is declaiming about the Australian economy and the supposed reasons for the dollar’s decline, remember that he (or she) probably hasn’t a clue about what is really going on. In the overall scheme of things, Austra­lia is doing pretty well. We could be doing better but then again, it could be a whole lot worse.

Electrical legislation

And by the way, in an area where we could be doing better, reform of Electrical Legislation, please get those Letters of Will into us. With your help, the regulations will be changed.