April 9, 2025 • 10 mins
Industry celebrations over a directive to use Kiwi wool in Government buildings.
New builds worth more than $9 million and refurbishments costing over $100 thousand must use wool where possible from July, meeting a Coalition deal.
The directive orders state agencies to follow the directive where practical.
Campaign for Wool Chairperson Ryan Cosgrove told Kerre Woodham they’re stoked to see this formalised into policy.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood, a morning's podcast from
news Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Said b Ryan, good morning to you morning Kerry.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
How are you doing good?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I just thought i'd call it I have. I've had
a call from a couple of growers and they said, Ryan,
you know, we need someone with a bit of intelligence
and some facts to come and talk. And I don't
think that's me, but they called me so, amongst other things,
I'm the board chair for the campaign for Will New Zealand. Oh,
I thought it'd be called just fill in a couple
(00:39):
of the gaps and some of the maybe the myths.
Yes it's been in some of the early stuff, but yeah,
I just thought we could have a quiped chat.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, you must be pretty thrilled then about the announcement yesterday.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
We are stoked and it's been a long time in
the work and it was part of a coalition agreement
right at the start, but to see it actually formalized
into policy yesterday was really really it sounds like a
huge one because.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I couldn't believe. And Allen, one of our carters, reminded
me that you weren't even allowed to tender under the
last government for some of the jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
There were requests of proposals RFPs that quite specifically said
will need not apply, and that was true of even
under this coalition, and one of the most recent coying
or RFPs, which unfortunately it was will need not apply right,
which was hugely disappointing. It's always gets thrown out as costs.
(01:41):
But then through freedom of information we found that through
the proposal, the decision to not choose will was based
on a difference of what would have only been two
hundred to four hundred dollars per house, and the specifically
the coying or a decision. We got the RFP opened
up through a lot of lobbying from a lot of
groups working together, you know, the said farmer's campaigns for
(02:04):
wall will impact pushing to get that RFB opened up,
which was also successful. So we've had a couple of
good ones in the last couple of months.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, why did will go out of fashion in the
first place, because in the olden days you did have wool.
Everybody used wool.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, Unfortunately, the rise of synthetic Most people don't know
that nylon is a relatively new fiber, only coming on
into late nineteen hundreds and then billions of dollars of
investment into a specific form of nylon, nylon sixty six,
which basically just pretends to be wool. They buffer it
(02:40):
with air, they fluff it up, they try and make
the outside textured like well, they literally try and make
the synthetic filament look and feel and perform like wool.
They don't get close. But that was the investment, and
then the masses of marketing like you, me and all
the listeners will remember the rhino carpet ads and all
these Nylon is durable, It'll last forever and will just
(03:02):
fait it out. We didn't have the marketing budget to
match it, right.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
But as soon as you experience it, Like as somebody
as I said earlier, who gave no thought to what
I stood on, I really didn't care until I had.
I was went to carpet court and saw the choices,
and they showed me, are we Why would you go
for synthetic when when that feel of wall is so amazing.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It's unbelievable. Right, you were walking into your seat for
the first time and you think, how did they evern
not have this? Yeah, we just put a big loop
pile wall carpet in our house as well, and brand
new fresh walls. You can't you can't beat it. Yeah,
I think the previous caller who was a carpet layer.
Ye see the broadly broad loom coughs. Just for those
who don't know. A broad loom meters three point six
(03:49):
six meters by one meter, and it's like the size
of a role comes in. Yeah, but I can see
online that per square meter, which people will be much
more familiar with. You can get good wall carpets from
Bramworth on Carpet Court. This is not sponsored, No, it's
not bringing it as long as fifty seven dollars a meter,
like there are affordable wool options that are cheaper than
(04:13):
some of the more the solution dyed nylon stuff. Even
so you know it's there if you look for it.
The problem is a lot of the time selling agents
won't show it to you because there's other deals in
how nylon carpets are sold that make it more attractive
for some sales agents to promote it. So well, that
did go in.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, that explains a text that I received. Both my
mother and my friend replaced their carpets last year. Wool
was available, but the salesman from three different retailers steered
them towards the synthetic which they ended up buying instead
of wool which they initially wanted, and the price wasn't
too different. Why did they bag the wool and praise
(04:54):
the synthetics, asks Rachel.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
There that goes a long way to answering that question,
and wool, to some of the brands, both here Australia
and overseas, is becoming more savvy both in the marketing
space but also the sales and distribution structures that we use.
So we are seeing upticks and demand for wool carpet
and wool interiors as well, that's acoustics and insulation and
(05:19):
other wool products. So it is a hugely positive day
that the government's now standing behind their worth from a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Somebody else also said that they'd put in wool, but
the weavils came in out in the country and has
nibbled away two meters around the walls.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That's quite disappointing, and tell them to talk to whoever
they brought the carpet from. Because beetles and moths are
a solved problem in good quality wool yarn we use
piri thren free treatments in the finishing stage. In a
past life, I've worked in a carpet yarn spinning milk
(05:58):
that the yarn should be treated for this, and if
they're not, all the treatments failed, that's one hundred percent
a warrantyball issue. People can make their carpet look fresher
and longer just by vacuuming, you know, once a week,
just kicking over it. But it should be not an issue.
And if it has happened to that poor person, get
(06:18):
them to talk to where they got it from because
it shouldn't okay.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And somebody else says when it comes to schools and
or government owned entities, I'd go nowhere near wall carpet.
The initial cost may not seem too expensive when you
replace it time and time again, as you would in
ko houses, I'm sorry, it's just going to end up
costing too much. So talking about that two hundred dollars
(06:43):
more per house. By the time you've replicated that a
number of times, then it will make a significant difference.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
It's a bits we've battled with a lot that a
wall carpet doesn't last as long. There's beautiful accidents. The
wool carpets and some of the biggest high traffic hotels
in the world that are twenty five thirty years old
as well, And so we're talking about homes here, not
athic hotel corridors. The durability of wool and compared to
(07:11):
even wool blend carpets, there's no for one hundred percent
wool versus one hundred and eighty percent nylon, there's no
perceivable difference in durability through all the standard test methodologies.
It's again an old myth that we're kind of dealt
with that's been Technology is improved, but we can't shape
for the monkey of the myth.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Okay, And somebody else says, surely it's more even with
the scarring, it is more likely to break down and landfill.
I've seen Linda Helenan, who's a fantastic to me, the
ultimate New Zealand gardener, do the most amazing garden out
of carpet, old wool carpet that they took out of
an old farm cottage and laid it down in a paddock,
(07:55):
And so it can't be it can't be bad.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yarn wool yards that you can buy if I was
doing it, I'd pull the from the backing before I
put it in the garden because some of the backings
are still made of synthetic material, so they'll stay. But
then you could say that's a wee map, no worse
than the plastic you would have put anywhere. But I'd
pull the yarn because that's the readily by adegradable part.
(08:22):
And then you put the costs part as well. Sorry,
but it's not just the outlay. But you take wool
which has you know, it's scaled. When you zoom it,
it traps all the dust and the dirts and the
VOCs that are in the air, and it holds it
until you vacuum it back out. So like, yes, the
outlay of the cost is higher, but then there's like
(08:42):
flow and benefits to people's respiratory systems, the reducing burden
on the health system. I mean, f KO houses are
going to be up to their maximum occupancies. We don't
want things like sickness creating further burdens on different parts
of the economy. It's not just the capital outlay of
buying a carpet, but those are things we can't quantify
(09:04):
to put into something like RFP that makes it quite
difficult to you know, you're kind of waxing lyrical, but
you can't put a number next to it.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah. The only other thing that people are saying, who
you know. Somebody says, we're on our third woolen carpet
in fifty eight years. Love them, says Bruce. But others
are like, ah, if you've got pets, no, two large
dogs and a family no.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I mean each to their own. I'm not going to
say it's the solution for everything. If you do have
pets with claws, I'd stay away from loop pile carpets.
Flaws can get caught in the loops. But then there's
cut pile. Think about the density that you're buying, Like
this is we're talking to a good salesman who gets war.
We'll be able to see you in the right direction.
Easy care. Higher density cut pile carpets will be better
(09:51):
for that family situation. My house is just my fiance
and I, so we went for a big loop pile.
Lush feels great on the feet and that's what suits us.
But finding a salesman who gets it seems to be
the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And I'm getting more texts on that thank you so much,
Ryan Cosgrove, who's the chairperson for the Campaign for Wool.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
For more from Carry Wooden Mornings, listen live to news
Talks at B from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the carry Wood, a morning's podcast from
news Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Said b Ryan, good morning to you morning Kerry.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
How are you doing good?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I just thought i'd call it I have. I've had
a call from a couple of growers and they said, Ryan,
you know, we need someone with a bit of intelligence
and some facts to come and talk. And I don't
think that's me, but they called me so, amongst other things,
I'm the board chair for the campaign for Will New Zealand. Oh,
I thought it'd be called just fill in a couple
(00:39):
of the gaps and some of the maybe the myths.
Yes it's been in some of the early stuff, but yeah,
I just thought we could have a quiped chat.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, you must be pretty thrilled then about the announcement yesterday.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
We are stoked and it's been a long time in
the work and it was part of a coalition agreement
right at the start, but to see it actually formalized
into policy yesterday was really really it sounds like a
huge one because.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I couldn't believe. And Allen, one of our carters, reminded
me that you weren't even allowed to tender under the
last government for some of the jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
There were requests of proposals RFPs that quite specifically said
will need not apply, and that was true of even
under this coalition, and one of the most recent coying
or RFPs, which unfortunately it was will need not apply right,
which was hugely disappointing. It's always gets thrown out as costs.
(01:41):
But then through freedom of information we found that through
the proposal, the decision to not choose will was based
on a difference of what would have only been two
hundred to four hundred dollars per house, and the specifically
the coying or a decision. We got the RFP opened
up through a lot of lobbying from a lot of
groups working together, you know, the said farmer's campaigns for
(02:04):
wall will impact pushing to get that RFB opened up,
which was also successful. So we've had a couple of
good ones in the last couple of months.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, why did will go out of fashion in the
first place, because in the olden days you did have wool.
Everybody used wool.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, Unfortunately, the rise of synthetic Most people don't know
that nylon is a relatively new fiber, only coming on
into late nineteen hundreds and then billions of dollars of
investment into a specific form of nylon, nylon sixty six,
which basically just pretends to be wool. They buffer it
(02:40):
with air, they fluff it up, they try and make
the outside textured like well, they literally try and make
the synthetic filament look and feel and perform like wool.
They don't get close. But that was the investment, and
then the masses of marketing like you, me and all
the listeners will remember the rhino carpet ads and all
these Nylon is durable, It'll last forever and will just
(03:02):
fait it out. We didn't have the marketing budget to
match it, right.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
But as soon as you experience it, Like as somebody
as I said earlier, who gave no thought to what
I stood on, I really didn't care until I had.
I was went to carpet court and saw the choices,
and they showed me, are we Why would you go
for synthetic when when that feel of wall is so amazing.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It's unbelievable. Right, you were walking into your seat for
the first time and you think, how did they evern
not have this? Yeah, we just put a big loop
pile wall carpet in our house as well, and brand
new fresh walls. You can't you can't beat it. Yeah,
I think the previous caller who was a carpet layer.
Ye see the broadly broad loom coughs. Just for those
who don't know. A broad loom meters three point six
(03:49):
six meters by one meter, and it's like the size
of a role comes in. Yeah, but I can see
online that per square meter, which people will be much
more familiar with. You can get good wall carpets from
Bramworth on Carpet Court. This is not sponsored, No, it's
not bringing it as long as fifty seven dollars a meter,
like there are affordable wool options that are cheaper than
(04:13):
some of the more the solution dyed nylon stuff. Even
so you know it's there if you look for it.
The problem is a lot of the time selling agents
won't show it to you because there's other deals in
how nylon carpets are sold that make it more attractive
for some sales agents to promote it. So well, that
did go in.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, that explains a text that I received. Both my
mother and my friend replaced their carpets last year. Wool
was available, but the salesman from three different retailers steered
them towards the synthetic which they ended up buying instead
of wool which they initially wanted, and the price wasn't
too different. Why did they bag the wool and praise
(04:54):
the synthetics, asks Rachel.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
There that goes a long way to answering that question,
and wool, to some of the brands, both here Australia
and overseas, is becoming more savvy both in the marketing
space but also the sales and distribution structures that we use.
So we are seeing upticks and demand for wool carpet
and wool interiors as well, that's acoustics and insulation and
(05:19):
other wool products. So it is a hugely positive day
that the government's now standing behind their worth from a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Somebody else also said that they'd put in wool, but
the weavils came in out in the country and has
nibbled away two meters around the walls.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That's quite disappointing, and tell them to talk to whoever
they brought the carpet from. Because beetles and moths are
a solved problem in good quality wool yarn we use
piri thren free treatments in the finishing stage. In a
past life, I've worked in a carpet yarn spinning milk
(05:58):
that the yarn should be treated for this, and if
they're not, all the treatments failed, that's one hundred percent
a warrantyball issue. People can make their carpet look fresher
and longer just by vacuuming, you know, once a week,
just kicking over it. But it should be not an issue.
And if it has happened to that poor person, get
(06:18):
them to talk to where they got it from because
it shouldn't okay.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And somebody else says when it comes to schools and
or government owned entities, I'd go nowhere near wall carpet.
The initial cost may not seem too expensive when you
replace it time and time again, as you would in
ko houses, I'm sorry, it's just going to end up
costing too much. So talking about that two hundred dollars
(06:43):
more per house. By the time you've replicated that a
number of times, then it will make a significant difference.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
It's a bits we've battled with a lot that a
wall carpet doesn't last as long. There's beautiful accidents. The
wool carpets and some of the biggest high traffic hotels
in the world that are twenty five thirty years old
as well, And so we're talking about homes here, not
athic hotel corridors. The durability of wool and compared to
(07:11):
even wool blend carpets, there's no for one hundred percent
wool versus one hundred and eighty percent nylon, there's no
perceivable difference in durability through all the standard test methodologies.
It's again an old myth that we're kind of dealt
with that's been Technology is improved, but we can't shape
for the monkey of the myth.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Okay, And somebody else says, surely it's more even with
the scarring, it is more likely to break down and landfill.
I've seen Linda Helenan, who's a fantastic to me, the
ultimate New Zealand gardener, do the most amazing garden out
of carpet, old wool carpet that they took out of
an old farm cottage and laid it down in a paddock,
(07:55):
And so it can't be it can't be bad.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yarn wool yards that you can buy if I was
doing it, I'd pull the from the backing before I
put it in the garden because some of the backings
are still made of synthetic material, so they'll stay. But
then you could say that's a wee map, no worse
than the plastic you would have put anywhere. But I'd
pull the yarn because that's the readily by adegradable part.
(08:22):
And then you put the costs part as well. Sorry,
but it's not just the outlay. But you take wool
which has you know, it's scaled. When you zoom it,
it traps all the dust and the dirts and the
VOCs that are in the air, and it holds it
until you vacuum it back out. So like, yes, the
outlay of the cost is higher, but then there's like
(08:42):
flow and benefits to people's respiratory systems, the reducing burden
on the health system. I mean, f KO houses are
going to be up to their maximum occupancies. We don't
want things like sickness creating further burdens on different parts
of the economy. It's not just the capital outlay of
buying a carpet, but those are things we can't quantify
(09:04):
to put into something like RFP that makes it quite
difficult to you know, you're kind of waxing lyrical, but
you can't put a number next to it.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah. The only other thing that people are saying, who
you know. Somebody says, we're on our third woolen carpet
in fifty eight years. Love them, says Bruce. But others
are like, ah, if you've got pets, no, two large
dogs and a family no.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I mean each to their own. I'm not going to
say it's the solution for everything. If you do have
pets with claws, I'd stay away from loop pile carpets.
Flaws can get caught in the loops. But then there's
cut pile. Think about the density that you're buying, Like
this is we're talking to a good salesman who gets war.
We'll be able to see you in the right direction.
Easy care. Higher density cut pile carpets will be better
(09:51):
for that family situation. My house is just my fiance
and I, so we went for a big loop pile.
Lush feels great on the feet and that's what suits us.
But finding a salesman who gets it seems to be
the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And I'm getting more texts on that thank you so much,
Ryan Cosgrove, who's the chairperson for the Campaign for Wool.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
For more from Carry Wooden Mornings, listen live to news
Talks at B from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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