Country of origin claims are one of the easiest ways for an Australian importer to accidentally breach the Australian Consumer Law. This guide explains the difference between Product of Australia, Made in Australia, Australian Made and Packed in Australia, how the substantial transformation test actually works, and why Designed in Melbourne, Made in China is usually the smartest and safest claim you can make.
Last updated: 9 September 2026
In short: You can only claim your product is Made in Australia if it was substantially transformed here — and putting Chinese-made components into a box in a Melbourne warehouse does not count. Assembling imported parts in Australia might qualify if the assembly fundamentally changes the goods, but packing, labelling, mixing or minor finishing does not. Getting it wrong is a false or misleading representation under the Australian Consumer Law, and the ACCC has taken action over exactly this. For most importers, the honest and commercially strong answer is a dual claim: Designed in Australia, Made in China.
Because Australian consumers pay a premium for local, and the ACCC knows it. Origin claims are a recognised driver of purchase decisions, which is why they sit squarely inside the misleading conduct provisions of the Australian Consumer Law rather than being treated as harmless marketing.
The risk is not theoretical. Businesses have been penalised for overstating Australian origin on products that were largely imported. If you are importing from China or Vietnam and want to lean on your Australian identity, you need to know precisely which claim you have earned.
There are four claims Australian businesses commonly use, and they are not interchangeable. Each has a different legal threshold.
| Claim | What it requires | Realistic for an importer? |
|---|---|---|
| Product of Australia | Each significant ingredient or component originated in Australia, and all or virtually all processing happened here | Almost never — this is the highest bar |
| Made in Australia | The goods were substantially transformed in Australia | Only if genuine manufacturing or transformative assembly happens here |
| Australian Made (kangaroo logo) | Meets the Made in Australia test, plus a licence from Australian Made Campaign Ltd | Only with a licence — the logo is a registered trade mark |
| Packed in Australia | The goods were packed here; origin of the contents must be stated separately | Yes — commonly the correct claim for imported goods repacked locally |
Substantial transformation means the imported goods underwent a fundamental change in Australia — in form, appearance or nature — so that the goods that come out are genuinely different from the goods that went in.
The word doing the work is fundamental. The following generally do not qualify on their own: repacking or rebottling; applying your label or branding; sorting, grading or cleaning; simple mixing or dilution; and minor assembly using imported parts and hand tools.
What can qualify: taking imported raw material or components and manufacturing them into a materially different finished product through a real production process in an Australian facility.
Two Melbourne businesses, both importing from China, land in very different places.
Business A imports finished stainless steel drink bottles from Ningbo, then applies its logo and puts them in branded boxes at a Dandenong warehouse. Claim available: Packed in Australia, with Made in China stated for the contents. Not Made in Australia — branding and packing is not transformation.
Business B imports Chinese steel sheet and Vietnamese plastic components, then manufactures, welds, powder-coats and assembles a finished piece of equipment at a Melbourne factory. The inputs are unrecognisable in the finished product. Claim likely available: Made in Australia, on the substantial transformation basis.
The difference is not how much money each business spends in Australia. It is whether the goods themselves fundamentally changed here.
This is the most common piece of outdated advice still circulating. The old safe harbour required both substantial transformation and at least 50% of production costs incurred in Australia.
Following reforms to the Australian Consumer Law, the 50% production cost element was removed from the safe harbour defence for Made in Australia claims, leaving substantial transformation as the operative test. Practically, this made the test simpler but no easier to satisfy — you cannot buy your way to an Australian origin claim by spending locally, and you cannot lose one just because your inputs were cheap imports.
Separately, mandatory country of origin labelling applies to most food sold in Australia, with prescribed bar-chart labels and stricter rules than the general goods regime. If you import food, treat that as its own compliance project.
Yes — and for most Australian importers this is the smartest option available. It is accurate, it satisfies your origin disclosure, and it lets you claim the Australian design and brand story that customers actually respond to, without overstating where manufacturing happened.
Some practical rules if you go this way. Keep both parts of the claim similarly prominent, so a shopper is not misled by a large Australian flag and a tiny Made in China in six-point type on the base. Do not use the kangaroo-in-a-triangle Australian Made logo unless you hold a licence. Avoid vague filler like Australian owned and operated placed next to imagery that implies local manufacturing. And make sure whatever you print matches the certificate of origin your supplier issues for customs.
A false or misleading country of origin claim is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law, and the maximum penalties for corporations are substantial — currently the greater of a large fixed amount, three times the benefit obtained, or a percentage of annual turnover. The ACCC can also seek injunctions, corrective advertising orders and undertakings.
The commercial damage usually bites first, though. A recall or relabelling exercise across thousands of units of imported stock, plus the retailer relationship you damage in the process, tends to cost more than the fine.
Only if the assembly substantially transforms the goods into a fundamentally different product. Screwing together a few imported components with hand tools is generally not enough. Genuine manufacturing that changes the nature of the goods can be.
Trade descriptions requirements mean many imported goods must be marked with their country of origin, and specific categories have their own rules. Beyond the legal minimum, retailers and marketplaces will almost always require it, so treat origin marking as standard.
No. The Australian Made logo is a registered certification trade mark administered by Australian Made Campaign Ltd, and using it without a licence is an offence. Products that are substantially transformed in Australia can apply to licence it.
No, and conflating them is a classic misleading-conduct risk. Australian owned describes who owns the company; Australian made describes where the goods were transformed. A wholly Australian-owned business can still only sell Made in China products.
You are, as the business supplying the goods in Australia. Liability for a misleading claim sits with the supplier to the Australian consumer, which is why origin wording needs to be locked into your artwork approval and checked on your pre-production sample rather than left to the factory.
We have sourced over 20,000 products for 300+ happy Australian clients with average savings of around 77%, and our bilingual teams in China and Vietnam sit between you and the factory floor. On origin specifically, that means locking your origin wording into the artwork brief, checking the printed claim on the pre-production sample, and making sure your supplier issues a certificate of origin that matches what is on the box — so your ChAFTA duty claim and your marketing claim tell the same story.
Also worth reading before you sign off artwork: our guides on packaging and labelling requirements for imports and product barcodes and GS1 for Australian importers. If you are weighing up where to manufacture in the first place, our China vs Vietnam manufacturing comparison and our China to Australia importing service are the right next stops.
Give us a bell and we will help you make a claim you can actually stand behind.
