While Key is monkeying around in LA achieving nothing, Labour is pushing ahead with policies that will take this country forward. Last night, Phil Goff announced the party’s procurement policy at a meeting of Kiwirail Hillside workers, who have just experienced the results of government contracting that ignores wider economic impacts on the country.
The detail of Labour’s policy is here.
The logic of a procurement policy that compels government bodies to make decisions on more than a narrow commercial basis is obvious.
The new Auckland railcars could have been built in Dunedin, creating hundreds of jobs, boosting the economy, and ultimately bringing more tax into the government’s coffers. Instead, Kiwirail went for the ‘cheaper’ option: cheaper for it as a company in isolation but more expensive for the government and the country as a whole. Now, another 44 jobs have been lost at Hillside with 16 of the redundancies announced just before Goff arrived.
Kiwirail shouldn’t just be a company that we own, it should be about investing in and building New Zealand.
We can do better by requiring government bodies to consider the wider economic costs and benefits of their contract choices, just as other countries with procurement policies do. Good on Labour for leading the way.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress