Latest / Best of Business / Mark Patterson: Associate Agriculture Minister 'disappointed' Kāinga Ora isn't using wool carpets for state houses

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Mark Patterson: Associate Agriculture Minister 'disappointed' Kāinga Ora isn't using wool carpets for state houses · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. There'd be
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  Speaker 2: So King order under fire for ditching will carpets in
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  Speaker 2: favor of nylon, and that is despite government plans to
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  Speaker 2: direct government agencies to use wool over anything else where possible.
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  Speaker 2: Cayger Aura says, it's cost analysis has shown nylon was
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  Speaker 2: thirty four percent cheaper than more alternatives. And so joining
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  Speaker 2: me to talk about this is the man who blewed
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  Speaker 2: the whistle. Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson Heller Mark.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, Angel, you hear it going today?
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  Speaker 2: I'm good If nylon's really that much cheaper, can we
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  Speaker 2: really be upset with caring Aura?
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  Speaker 3: Well, how do they know? They haven't even given a
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  Speaker 3: carpet manufacturer's a chance to tender. So it's pretty premature statement.
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  Speaker 2: How do you think it's cheaper?
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  Speaker 3: Because it's not all about price, it's about value. And
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  Speaker 3: you know, wall carpets certainly have some attributes that synthetics
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  Speaker 3: will never be able to match the safer, healthier, more
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  Speaker 3: environmentally friendly tarpets. There's a big swing back to war actually,
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  Speaker 3: and there's good reason for that. But this isn't the
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  Speaker 3: coalition agreement. I think that's we get issues here and
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  Speaker 3: somewhere deep within the bowels of MB that've decided to
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  Speaker 3: defy that. So that's a problem.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I was wondering whether this was just a knee
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  Speaker 2: jerk somebody going the government wants to save money. I
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  Speaker 2: believe that nylon is cheaper, and they just went we'll
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  Speaker 2: go nylon.
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  Speaker 3: Oh look, it could be. And I mean this is
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  Speaker 3: sort of an operational issue for them at one level,
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  Speaker 3: but then it is directly in the coalition agreement. It's
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  Speaker 3: clear the intent of the government here. We're trying to
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  Speaker 3: revitalize the sheep industry and the war industry. We're starting
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  Speaker 3: to make some progress on that, but this is a
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  Speaker 3: bit of a kicking the guts and certainly the feedback
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  Speaker 3: on getting from farmers and the industry in general.
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  Speaker 2: Well you mentioned you mentioned it briefly already. The Brendworth
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  Speaker 2: CEO Greg Smith was on with Mike Hosking this morning
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  Speaker 2: and when I asked, he claimed that they could be
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  Speaker 2: competitive on price, but even more worryingly, they weren't asked
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  Speaker 2: to forward a price at all. So is Ko not
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  Speaker 2: shopping around for the best deal and therefore breaking its
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  Speaker 2: promise with the government, And isn't this what they were
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  Speaker 2: supposed to be doing to give the taxpayer bang for buck.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely that they didn't. That tender did not allow
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  Speaker 3: for the tablets that even be considered in new builds,
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  Speaker 3: which is a direct contradiction to the government's and key.
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  Speaker 3: So Greg has got every right to be a bit
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  Speaker 3: agreed about that as the might.
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  Speaker 2: The other bigger question is also do government agencies actually
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  Speaker 2: have an obligation to the state, to the people, to
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  Speaker 2: the farmers to support our wool industry even if it
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  Speaker 2: costs more.
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  Speaker 3: Well, as I say, it's not all that price. It's
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  Speaker 3: about value and the more holistic part of it, which
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  Speaker 3: is safer, healthier, more environment and friendly at supporting our
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  Speaker 3: law industry as sheep farmers that have really been struggling
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  Speaker 3: of late. So it is that's why it's in a
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  Speaker 3: coalition agreement. It's White New Zealand First's campaigned on it
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  Speaker 3: for a number of elections and National being good enough
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  Speaker 3: to come on board with it in a coalition agreement
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  Speaker 3: and we want it to be wanted.
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  Speaker 2: But the other coalition partner Act we claim that this
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  Speaker 2: is good old classic corporate welfare.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we all sign up to various things in the
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  Speaker 3: Coalition agreement that we might not totally be on board with,
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  Speaker 3: but you know it's there in black and white and
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  Speaker 3: that's the way this government operates and we'll work through this.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure we're will and we've just been blindsided this
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  Speaker 3: has come out of the NBN. We'll have a look
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  Speaker 3: at this and see if there's anything we can do
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  Speaker 3: to at least get the The World Guide is a
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  Speaker 3: chance to put energy in because that's the at least
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  Speaker 3: I can expect.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds fair. Mark Patterson of course, associated Agriculture
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  Speaker 2: Minister in New Zealand First MP as well.
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