Issued by BusinessNZ

“Businesses across Australia and New Zealand will be disappointed that Queensland’s discriminatory government procurement policy entered into force today” said the Australian co-chair of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) Ann Sherry AO today.

Ms Sherry said the policy will impact on intra-Australian trade and investment. It will also affect trade and investment into Queensland from New Zealand and all other countries.

The New Zealand co-chair of the ANZLF, Adrian Littlewood said Queensland’s government procurement policy is contrary to the Closer Economic Relations (CER) agreement that underpins trade and investment between the two countries.

The co-chairs noted the Australian Federal Trade Minister Steven Ciobo described the “Buy Queensland” procurement policy as worrying and potentially raised concerns with Free Trade Agreements being negotiated with other countries.

“CER has evolved to the point that both countries are developing a Single Economic Market. Queensland’s policy undermines that objective and can be potentially harmful to New Zealand companies” said Mr Littlewood.

The ANZLF co-chairs urged the Queensland State Government to amend their procurement policy to bring it into line with Australia’s international trade commitments and remove a serious thorn in the bilateral relationship with New Zealand.