Australian Industry Group call for national procurement strategy to buy local

The Australian Industry Group (AIG) are set to propose a national procurement strategy to augment existing government strategies and increase the use of locally made products in a submission to be released today.

It comes after anger at the mining sector and its use of Chinese steel for the billions it is spending on construction.

'Ai Group member companies increasingly report being locked out of contracts by barriers and distortions,' the group's chief executive, Heather Ridout said.

She proposed that government agencies, which buy billions of dollars of goods a year, as well as mining companies demonstrate an ongoing commitment to principles when awarding contracts.

CIPS Australasia Managing Director Jonathan Dutton FCIPS has commented that buying and selling for the wrong reasons can be a 'slippery slope' and highlighted the importance of buying for the right reasons based first upon strategic reasoning, such as security of supply, and secondly on commercial and technical merit.

He said, "Distorting markets deliberately can have grave consequences. Australian's should not buy local as a blind policy and distort markets. Though it is okay to buy local as a preference given an equal and balanced choice between competing competitors."
 

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