Wool minister looking for a way to ‘reverse engineer’ Kāinga Ora’s carpet decision

Mark Patterson is also a sheep and beef farmer from Otago. (Image: NZME)

Thu, 05 Dec 2024

“The renaissance of the New Zealand wool industry has begun.”That was an enthusiastic Mark Patterson speaking in a video uploaded to social media after an industry event in Wellington late last month.Less than two weeks later, the Associate Agriculture Minister and many in the industry have been “totally blindsided” by Kāinga Ora’s decision to exclude wool carpet from its most recent tender. The housing agency said that nylon could save roughly 34% in costs.That, Patterson, an NZ First MP and Otago farmer, sai...

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