Riverina MP Michael McCormack has said the kangaroo-inspired Australian Made logo is "there to stay" after a new $10 million national brand was widely criticised.
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Fellow Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said the new brand looked like "a cross between the coronavirus and bird poo on your windscreen at 80km an hour".
Australia's Nation Brand Advisory Council, made up of major business leaders has released a new national brand featuring a "wattle glow" in "bright joyous gold" and the letters 'AU' representing the international code for Australia and the chemical symbol for gold.
Though the new logo was meant to promote Australia at trade shows rather than to individual shoppers, there has been widespread confusion that the wattle would completely replace the kangaroo.
"The fact is that I have spoken to [Trade Minister] Simon Birmingham today and he has assured me that the kangaroo that we all know and love has been part of the Australian Made logo will stay," Mr McCormack said on Wednesday.
"Yes, there's been another brand which will be used in trade shows which features the beautiful wattle. Hopefully the wattle from Cootamundra, that beautiful gold emblem that we know and love so well.
"But the Australian Made kangaroo logo is there to stay."
The kangaroo logo will stay but its green will change to a richer shade and its yellow will be replaced by metallic gold.
"Australia is inconsistent with its use of multiple logos, colours and narratives which dilute our brand offering and confuse our potential audiences," the Nation Brand Advisory Council's report stated.
"This is why we have modernised our national colour scheme with the use of a deep green and actual gold, rather than yellow."
Mr McCormack said kangaroos were an "iconic Australian brand" that had "been on the Australian Made logo for years', but also said he liked wattles.
"[The new national brand] was used to show that we are more than just kangaroos and koalas and other great things all about Australia," he said.
"The wattle is an iconic part of the Australian bush and appreciate from my electorate in the Riverina, the Cootamundra wattle is renowned throughout NSW, renowned throughout the nation.
"It will be used at trade shows. The kangaroo will be there on products and it will be there and still say, 'this is Australian made'. What better thing to do than buy Australian made...and we will have the new wattle logo there to help that brand along as well."
Mr McCormack would not be drawn on some people's comparisons of the wattle design with graphics representing coronavirus particles.
"It's gold. The virus is usually expressed in red," he said.
Australian Made Campaign Chairman Glenn Cooper said the kangaroo logo would continue its pivotal role in Australia's domestic and overseas branding strategy.
"The iconic green-and-gold kangaroo logo has been clearly identifying Australian goods in export markets for more than 34 years with great success," he said.
"It is by far Australia's most recognised and trusted country-of-origin symbol and is central to the export strategies of Aussie exporters taking their goods abroad. There is no need to make a change in this space."