Councils Are Still Shutting Kiwi Businesses Out Of Billions In Ratepayer SpendingBuy NZ Made says local councils are dragging their feet on procurement reform, a year after central government overhauled its own rules to give New Zealand businesses a fairer shot at public contracts - and did nothing to bring councils along with it. It was a hard-won admission that decades of procurement practice had treated New Zealand businesses as an afterthought. However, local councils, which between them control billions of dollars a year in ratepayer money on everything from civil works to professional services, are not covered by the new rules. Every contract they hand to an out-of-town or offshore supplier by default, without even weighing the local benefit, is ratepayer money that could have kept a local business, and local jobs, alive." Councils must take note of this important distinction: NZ ownership does not mean a product is made in New Zealand.