Critics of KiwiRail for choosing foreign-owned contractors over local companies might want to take a closer look at the complexities.

This isn’t nearly as black and white as it seems. 

This of course relates to the job of electrifying the rail between Papakura and Pukekohe in Auckland.

KiwiRail has apparently chosen Chinese-owned John Holland and South African-owned McConnell Dowell to do the job, choosing them over local companies Downers and Fletchers.

The reason according to critics is cost. The reason, according to KiwiRail, is that the foreign-owned companies have the right expertise.

Actually, the mistake here isn’t KiwiRail’s in choosing foreign contractors, it is the naïve instruction to buy local.

That’s a kind thing to say, and a kind thing to do if you can afford it. But even if you want to, how do you buy 100% local?  How, do you do that without hurting other local businesses?

This is where it’s not so black and white.

Remember when the Prime Minister told us to bypass Uber Eats and go straight to our local restaurants?  That presumably helped restaurants, and presumably hurt Uber Eats, but it also had the unintended consequence of hurting Kiwi Uber Eats drivers who lost delivery jobs.

The instruction to buy local completely overlooks how highly connected our economy is to the global economy.  It’s not always easy to separate the local from the offshore.

If you go buy yourself a pair of pants from a kiwi-owned retailer, but the pants are made in China is that local or isn’t it?

If you choose locally-owned over foreign owned that decision might end up hurting the kiwi workers, the kiwi couriers, the kiwi cleaners, the kiwi landlords of that foreign-owned business.

And back to the KiwiRail case, we can call Downer and Fletchers local if we like, but we’d be playing pretend a wee bit.  Downer is really more accurately described as an Australian business and given that Fletcher is a listed company you can hardly assume that it’s completely locally-owned.

And what about McConnell Dowell?  Now South African but about fifty years ago it was a start-up founded in Auckland.

The choice isn’t as simple or as kind as we might be led to believe. It’s a nice idea, but even nice ideas can end up hurting locals.