Buy Local is the best brand of Kiwi loyalty

Green MP and 'Buy Local' spokesperson Mike Ward will kick off a nationwide campaign to encourage New Zealanders to support local businesses when he hosts a public meeting in Auckland on Thursday evening, March 13.

Mr Ward will host the meeting with Warren Snow of Envision New Zealand at the Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings in Auckland at 7.30pm.

Mr Snow, the former manager of the Tindall Foundation, is now helping communities fight 'big-box' retail sprawl by encouraging people to support local businesses for healthy communities.

"For every dollar we spend on foreign-made products, we take a dollar away from our families and our communities and we must reverse this," said Mr Ward.

"It is about loyalty to New Zealand businesses and loyalty to our community. Its about keeping our children, our friends and our families in work, and spending our money in places where it has a better chance of finding its way back into our own pockets."

Mr Ward recently made headlines when he exposed promotional Team New Zealand flags sold by The Warehouse as being made in China.

"Buying local is an act of enlightened self interest. How we spend our money, where we spend our money and what we buy with it are all decisions vital to the continued well-being of our communities."

Mr Ward also hopes to discuss at the forum the issues of sustainability and environmentally friendly business practices.

"The reality is that the only hope of saving ourselves and this most brilliant of planets from our excesses simply lies in curbing those excesses."

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