Ward Mike: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ward Mike: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 16 June 2004. Volume:618;Page:13642. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MIKE WARD (Green) 
: 
 During the recent adjournment I popped into my local supermarket on a number of occasions for a little retail therapy. I enjoy shopping for food. I particularly enjoy shopping for New Zealand food. I “buy local” because my money is much more likely to find its way back into the pockets of other New Zealanders. Also I buy local food because buying fresh local and in season produce reduces the energy content in my food and helps to lessen my contribution to global warming. My tastes are not particularly exotic and provided that I steer clear of processed food it is not too difficult to find local alternatives although it pays to ask where stuff comes from because although some produce comes with little stickers on it telling us where it is grown without those stickers the garlic oranges tomatoes or capsicums could come from just about anywhere and frequently do. 
Once I move a little way away from the fresh produce however and into the cans bottles pottles plastics and packets “buying local” becomes much more difficult. Not only is the country of origin local or foreign—if it is there at all—in the fine print but there is frequently precious little indication of where stuff comes from and precious little local stuff. Although it distresses me greatly to see local companies moving their manufacturing off shore whatever their products may be it particularly distresses me that in a nation with a reputation as a food producer overwhelmingly the products on our supermarket shelves are imported or made from imported content. Familiar brands are no guarantee of local product. Wattie’s Oak Sealord’s and many other New Zealand brands can and frequently do come from somewhere else. Although I may not agree with the arguments for manufacturing appliances motorcars and dinner sets somewhere else in the world I cannot accept any rationale for supermarket shelves in a food-producing nation having little or no local product and such an overwhelming array of foreign fodder. 
Nor can I understand why Governments would collude with producers who wish to hide where their products are made. I understand that a Government that has gone as far down the free-trade road as this one is not about to stop people from buying imports. I do not disagree with that. However I am surprised at the Government’s reluctance to indulge in a little old-fashioned encouragement and make some attempt to market the notion that buying New Zealand products can be synonymous with buying quality. As well as it being one way of increasing incomes and employment levels in New Zealand it is also something that all New Zealanders could so easily contribute to. 
Sourcing more of our needs locally is also an important step in reducing our contribution to global warming. This Government is to be commended for its willingness to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol and for embracing transport reform but the Kyoto Protocol and transport reform alone as important as they are will not secure my grandchildren’s future. Although New Zealand is probably as well placed as any country in the world to survive the perils of the 21st century we ought not to settle for mere survival or fail to do all we can to avoid a likely doubling and possibly quadrupling in carbon dioxide levels this century or the consequential weather extremes sea-level rises water and food shortages or desertification and inundation. It is our behaviour and the behaviour of people like us that threaten not merely our future but the very capacity of the planet to sustain life. 
Although the Government is not silent on these issues very modest budgetary and legislative measures—like a campaign to persuade us to spend more of our money on local products; like waste legislation that puts teeth into the Government’s waste strategy—would enhance the quality of our own lives and improve our economic performance improve the quality of our environment and set an example to the rest of the world. Are these measures inconsistent with the Government’s intentions? I would not have thought so but I fear that by the time Governments have begun to take the necessary steps to avoid disaster the changes will already be irreversible. Can a country with a mere 4 million people make a difference on a planet with 6 billion people and growing? It will certainly make a positive difference for New Zealanders and our children and grandchildren will not thank us for doing nothing.