‘New Zealand Inc.’ will compromise Buy Kiwi Made

‘New Zealand Inc.’ will compromise Buy Kiwi Made.

The Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association says that the Government’s decision to establish ‘New Zealand Inc.’ will compromise the effectiveness of the Buy Kiwi Made programme. The Association had welcomed the decision not to widen the Buy Kiwi Made programme; however through the introduction of ‘New Zealand Inc.’, the Government is seeking to achieve that objective by another means.

“‘New Zealand Inc.’ adds another regulatory body to an already crowded Government sector”, says CEO John Walley. “Unfortunately, the Government operates a practice whereby it uses its various grant systems to ‘pick winners’ and New Zealand Inc. is yet another example of that”.

“There are many New Zealand companies who cannot get or don’t want Government grants. For the tradable sector to develop and grow, it would be better served by the Government providing tax incentives for product development and wider policy settings that support productive investments here in New Zealand rather than spending tax revenues via yet more Government agencies pushing activity out into low cost countries – surely this is not a good way to spend taxpayers funds. If companies want the move offshore, fine, but should we be helping them do it with New Zealanders’ taxes?”

“The Government will argue that it remains committed to supporting the Buy Kiwi Made programme and that by providing funding for companies it has kept its pledge to the Green party and responded to those who lobbied for the programme not to be widened", says Mr. Walley. “But the ‘New Zealand Inc’ solution is a classic example of the Orwellian ‘doublethink’ – no place for principles there. It will compromise and confuse Buy Kiwi Made and will damage the objective of promoting the value and values associated with buying local.”

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