What price symbolic sellout?In the case of our Anzac Poppy it is $150,000 – the amount RSA chief executive Dr Stephen Clarke says will be saved by taking the poppies away from New Zealand to be made in China and assembled in Australia.Dr Clarke's sh
What price symbolic sellout?
In the case of our Anzac Poppy it is $150,000 – the amount RSA chief executive Dr Stephen Clarke says will be saved by taking the poppies away from New Zealand to be made in China and assembled in Australia.
Dr Clarke’s shock announcement takes work away from Christchurch-based Kilmarnock Enterprises, which has been assembling poppies for about 30 years.
Kilmarnock hires about 72 people, many of them with mental or physical disabilities, 30 of whom consistently make 1.4 million poppies for New Zealand.
The Christchurch RSA has organised their manufacture since 1931.
Poppies – except those for Auckland – will continue to be made in Christchurch next year.
It is understood Auckland poppies will next year be sourced through China and Australia.
From May 1 next year China-made poppy parts will be assembled in Australia by and sent here for national sale from 2012.
Some will say the decision to take the work away from New Zealand and get it done cheaper anywhere is good business and a true example of a market forces economy in action.
But the Anzac Poppy is not about money.
Already New Zealanders are saying they will not buy the foreign poppies and instead make a donation directly to the RSA for the care and welfare of old diggers.
It is important to keep our poppies as much New Zealand-made as possible – cost should not be a factor.
What is needed is for some well-heeled philanthropic New Zealand business folk to put their hands in their pockets to ensure the Anzac Poppy retains its Anzac integrity and endures as a New Zealand icon – not a callous victim of globalisation.
A New Zealand poppy would be an admirable cause for Roger Kerr and the Business Roundtable to champion in the new year.
How about it?
Interestingly, the RSA’s website carries the following enduring observation:
“Today, the RSA Poppy continues to serve as New Zealand’s symbol of remembrance and, like the silver fern, is a national icon.”
Who wrote that?
Dr Stephen Clarke.
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