http://www.abc.net.au/news/btn/story/s2667464.htm

Easy to understand for children and adults!

During the tough economic conditions, a lot of people have put forward plans to help local businesses hold off the recession and continue to make money.

One of them put to the government a few months back was the 'Buy Australia' campaign, which aimed to give preferential treatment to Aussie companies when the government buys all it's goods and services and encouraged you to do the same.

It sounds like a good idea, but how do you know which companies are actually Australian?
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Products, products, products.

Everyday we are faced with something being sold to us.

There are so many options out there and the supermarket is when most of us make the choice of what we'd like to buy.

NATHAN: But how do you decide on what you want? Is it taste? Price? Or maybe how bright the packaging is? Well one thing that probably hasn't crossed your mind is where a product comes from.

Products bought in from overseas are called imports.

USA is where most of our imports come from, followed by china, then japan.

We pay them money and they sell us their stuff.

But what you might have noticed is by doing that, our money is heading overseas.

NATHAN: But some Australians have a problem with that. They reckon money that heads overseas can't help our economy - it'll help theirs instead.

If you spend your money on something Australian, then the money is more likely to stay here.

So its a pretty good thing for local businesses, who need to hire more staff, who spend more money; which is all awesome for our economy.

NATHAN: So how do can you tell which products are Australian and which aren't? Well there are three main types of labels you can find on your food at home.

The first says 'Made in Australia', like on this Vegemite, and while this might sound good, all it means is that more than half of the cost of producing it was spent here.

The company that makes Vegemite is actually owned overseas, so that's where some of the the profits could go.

The second label is 'Product of Australia', like on this long life milk.

This means it's mostly made here and at least some of the ingredients are from Australia too. But the company still doesn't have to be owned here.

The third label is 'Australian Owned and Made', like on these cornflakes, and it's the best of all the labels for local businesses.

It means that the product is made here AND the company is mostly owned here, so the profits will hopefully stay put!

This is the basis of the campaign to 'Buy Australian' and unions here spent a lot of time trying to convince the government to do as much of its spending here as possible.

But originally, they said no.

Wait. Why would they say no to something that seems so good for the country?!

Well there are some benefits to buying things overseas.

Things made in bigger countries can often be made much, much cheaper than here at home; and if we buy lots of things from other countries, they're often more happy to buy things off us.

So it's a complicated argument!

Eventually, the government agreed to try to buy Australian and it will set up a campaign to convince us to do the same.

It's hoping that extra money bouncing around the country, will result in a healthier economy and healthy smiles from producers too.