Thursday July 21, 2011

Stronger government buy-local requirements are welcome, but a union representing textile and wood processing workers is sceptical of Labour’s ability to implement their new policy, because so little has changed following the past 3 reviews of procurement.

In the past 10 years, government procurement has been reviewed twice under Labour, and most recently under National, as a result of the 2009 Job Summit.

But each time, any progress toward making government procurement more favourable to local manufacturers has been largely stymied by officials, Robert Reid, National Distribution Union General Secretary said.

“Labour’s moves to establish Industry Participation Plans, apprenticeship requirements and whole-of-life economic analysis are of course good news for manufacturing workers.”

“But we want assurances from Labour that the introduction of better procurement policies will not be defeated by officials.”

Robert Reid said Labour needn’t be preoccupied with our WTO commitments.

“To continue to talk about our WTO obligations in the context of procurement is already loosing the game before you start.”

“Unfortunately, when it comes to global trade, successive New Zealand Governments refuse to play the way the All Blacks do – playing to the edge of the rules, and even over them, in order to gain the greatest advantage.”

“Most other trading nations have strong government procurement requirements. The United States requires its solders to be kitted out in American made uniforms, for example, and Australian infrastructure projects often have a minimum local content provision.”

Robert Reid said that the wood processing industry, which has lost over 1,000 jobs since 2008 including 20 more in Fielding last week, was another sector let down by procurement rules.

“For major events such as the Canterbury rebuild, the use of New Zealand sawn timber and engineered wood products must be prioritised. We are not certain that this is the case,” he said.

ENDS

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