Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

Sitting at the bay watching cargo ships sail away, I can't help but consider the billions of logs and timber they carry away to China, the United States and Australia, where our wood, once turned into finished products, commands much higher prices.

Why don't we create more regional jobs by manufacturing more of this wood right here at home, increase our profits and raise our Gross Domestic Product?

For example, with the international log and timber market at a decline and an increasing demand in furniture, this may be the perfect opportunity to look at increasing our furniture and finished goods exports.

Exporting raw materials, such as logs, rather than exporting finished goods, like tables, is limiting the flow of money from international markets into our country.

Raw materials bring fairly low prices because they're relatively cheap in the international market, as compared with finished goods.

In the 1500s Europe established its colonies to export raw materials, which would then be turned into finished goods and sold back to the colonies at higher prices.

That's a great deal for the so-called 'mother countries”, but a very raw deal for the colonies.

Surely, more than 500 years later, former colonies, including us commonwealth nations, could consider a shift in economy; one where we're exporting more NZ- owned finished goods than we are raw materials.

It is of significance that we make sure any increase in the export of finished goods is NZ- owned and run, and is not at the hands of multi-national foreign corporations, leaving the control and profits of our goods in the hands of foreign countries, which would only continue to rob us and our economy by way of loss profits, opportunities, jobs and an overall economic strengthening, of which we are in need.

New Zealand First is committed to strategically increasing New Zealand's exports as well as strengthening our international competitiveness in business.