20 July 2007

Passion, as well as products, promoted today

Today's launch of the Buy Kiwi Made media campaign is not just about products, says Green Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.

It is also about special, and passionate, New Zealanders.

"The first phase of the Government's Buy Kiwi Made media campaign, celebrating the work of 250,000 New Zealand employer and employee manufacturers, marks one of the Green Party's major achievements in Parliament," Ms Fitzsimons says.

"But today I would rather not focus on that milestone, but on people.

"Firstly on my former Co-Leader Rod Donald who in the years before his death in November 2005 passionately promoted the idea of such a campaign and persuaded the Government to accept the idea. Rod was very much a media person. He would have loved to be a part of Buy Kiwi Made media events, over the coming months, and in a way he really is part of it.

"Secondly my colleague Sue Bradford who had the incredibly difficult job of picking up this project from Rod and liaising with a huge range of people inside and outside of government in order to "sell it" and see it through to this public promotion launch date. I pay tribute to the amount of thought and intelligence Sue has put in but most importantly her heart is in Buy Kiwi Made, as well as her head."

However the overwhelming focus should be on innovative, risk-taking and previously-unheralded business people around the country who allow Buy Kiwi Made to be a real option, Ms Fitzsimons says.

"Our manufacturing sector involves more than 20,000 companies employing a quarter of a million people, but around 14,000 of those enterprises have fewer than five employees.

"Many businesses are driven more by the belief and passion of their workers than large incomes, and, as Rod said in a speech in Parliament in 2004, how can they compete in a free trade environment 'against regimes that tolerate slave labour or forced child labour?'" Ms Fitzsimons says.

"So many New Zealand manufacturers have pointed out to Rod and Sue - both human rights campaigners - the 'people issues' surrounding trade. Local firms have argued, rightly, that in comparison workers here are treated well. If New Zealanders embrace the Buy Kiwi Made campaign, more local businesses will be competitive, more workers employed here, and hopefully we will see fairer trade, not just free trade."

ENDS

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