Joint survey ranks China lowest in human rights

  • Published on 9/07/2008
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A joint survey between Amnesty International Australia and CHOICE has found that Australians are mindful of the ethical implications of products they purchase, but factors which affect them more directly are most important in determining what we buy.

Respondents were asked to rank a number of criteria in order of importance when it came to buying goods like household and hi-tech products, clothes and baby products such as strollers and toys.

"China was ranked lowest of 13 selected countries in terms of human rights and working conditions, and environmental issues. Over 40% of respondents said these issues are important factors in their purchasing decisions, but only a tiny number - between two and three percent - said they would be among the top three most important considerations," said Amnesty International's Sophie Peer.

Consumers consistently ranked good performance, price and low energy use - which relate to costs for the consumer – well above other factors when it comes to making purchase decisions.

China is Australia's biggest trading partner and produces 75 percent of the world's toys.

"China's dismal human rights record is well documented. It is not a transparent society. There is very little freedom of expression and the media are tightly controlled by the state. It is difficult to understand the full extent of human rights violations and labour abuses, yet we do major business together."

"We urge Australians to do more to use their economic power as consumers to advocate for change by seeking more information on the goods they buy and the conditions in which they are made."

The survey was conducted in February 2008, to gauge the extent to which issues like human rights and working conditions influence consumer purchasing decisions. It also provides anecdotal evidence from those who have chosen not to buy a product based on ethical reasons.

The survey was conducted online with 1000 respondents from a cross section of the general Australian population by an external research company (Jones Donald Strategy Partners). 4000 CHOICE magazine subscribers and 4000 CHOICE online members were also surveyed with a response rate of 13.8%.

The survey results are available to download here.

Comments

Comments are submitted by members of the public and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Amnesty International Australia. If you find a comment objectionable please contact the web editor.

Dear Richard, while condsidering business investment, I believe human rights is the last thing to worry about for professional business people, though this has been taught or told all the time.

What we really should think about is wether this critical issue is arosed just by the Chinese goverment/its system structure or China’s huge population/world manfacture.

I do wanna see more products made in Australia, last time I bought a T-shirt which cost me 50 bucks, and its quality is not good enough.

I believe the trade between Australia and China is suppose a win-win situation, well, since we lived in here, we get media covered to broadcast about how Chinese investment pouring into Australia, what we do not know about is many, I mean many australia company has been investing in China decades ago. Check out Sinogold, one great example, lots of stories behind it.

comment by:

matt
22/07/2008
06:02 AM

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AMP has recently begun advertiing on television for investors to join it in investing in China.  Considering the human rights situation in China, as well as the fact that Chinese state owned companies now have the extra money to buy up overseas oil companies ( Norway) power companies in Victoria, etc etc. sell arms to Sudan and Zimbabwe, why is AMP trying to help this juggernaut that represents world fascism at its worst?

comment by:

Richard Morris
10/07/2008
10:16 PM

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