Ian Spellerberg: Why ‘buy local’ is crucial

The response to plans for a Buy New Zealand campaign has been muted, with some support from manufacturers, but little acknowledgement from consumers and taxpayers.

Instead, much has been made of the complicated corporate ownership and distribution arrangements which make it difficult to identify a product's true pedigree or country of origin.

The response suggests that few people have actually tested the logic of this policy and what it might mean to families, communities and the economy. Perhaps this is because of the campaign's rather benign language.

A good way to understand the real value of the campaign is to propose an opposite. Instead of Buy New Zealand we could have a new trading initiative called "export your neighour's job to a low-wage economy", or "stifle local innovation with cheap goods from far-off places".

If that doesn't get a reaction the campaign could be reinvented along the lines of "import absolutely everything like there's infinite oil".

Sadly, these statements are only a slight exaggeration. This is what, in effect, our present consumption patterns are encouraging us to do. New Zealand has been living well beyond its means for many years, and the idea that we rely more each year on imported goods is ludicrous. It is economically and environmentally unsustainable.

How then might a Buy New Zealand campaign have benefits? The Greens, who have won approval for the campaign in coalition negotiations, are concerned with sustainability, which takes a long-term view. Sustainability is about ensuring that our current behaviour does not compromise the quality of life for generations of people not yet born.

The fact is, however, that most of what we do in New Zealand is not sustainable. Our level of consumerism is one of the highest in the world. Compared with Europe, we are in the dark ages when it comes to sustainable lifestyles.

If there is any lingering doubt about the sustainability imperative, we should reflect on the reasoning for the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. The timeframe for this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) project is without precedent.

Ten years have been devoted to an education programme for sustainable development. This is the first year of that decade and New Zealand has established a national committee to co-ordinate its response.

It's good to see our Government taking the project seriously, but our response lags behind the countries we compare ourselves with, particularly regarding the high-level support the programme attracts. We should look at the approach of Nordic countries which see sustainability as above politics.

New Zealand has taken a mainly volunteer approach and seems very nervous about more regulation. The voluntary approach is laudable and many people do have a responsible attitude to sustainability. However, that is going to make too little difference, too late. There has to be more regulation. It will be to our gross disadvantage if we leave it all to market forces or technology.

It is a great shame that the Buy New Zealand campaign has not been embraced with more enthusiasm. It is, after all, directly addressing the sustainable use of resources, the quality of our lives and the myth that New Zealand is clean and green.

Clean and green we may appear, but sustainable we are not.

Why buy New Zealand-made? The answer is because it will help contribute to the social, cultural, economic and environmental wellbeing of this country. The economists will argue that New Zealand must import to avoid inefficiency, and focus on its competitive advantage, but they fail to see that the economy is nested within society, which in turn is nested within the physical environment.

Every product has a social, cultural and environmental history. Unfortunately the cost is rarely expressed in the price, and the cost of not supporting a Buy New Zealand campaign is "more of the same".

* Professor Ian Spellerberg is director of the Isaac Centre, Lincoln University.