Kara Biggs: Campaign for Wool General Manager on Kainga Ora revising their ban on wool carpets

There's confidence from the wool sector that Kainga Ora will learn the value of wool carpets. 

The social housing agency's back-tracking on a previous ban after using synthetic carpets for more than a decade. 

It will now allow wool carpet providers to tender for carpet and underlay contracts. 

Campaign for Wool general manager Kara Biggs told Andrew Dickens there's an opportunity to show Kainga Ora how wool can compete on price and value now. 

She says that wool is natural, flame resistant, warmer, and more absorbent, which means it's a better and healthier alternative for those in community housing.

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good news for woolkaing Or has made a u turn
on the carpets. If you remember, last year, Housing New
Zealand asked for tenders from synthetic carpet suppliers for more
than five thousand of its homes, which caused an uproar
from the wall sector. Now it will reopen tenders, allowing
bids from suppliers of wool carpets. So the Campaign for
Wall general manager Kara Biggs joins me. Now in Kara,

(00:21):
you must be extatic.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, thanks for having us Andrew. We are really ecstatic.
It's very good news. And you know, hats off to
Kying Order because they listened. You know, there was a
huge collective cry across New Zealand of you know, come
on guys, this isn't right. You know what we need
some answers. They knew it wasn't going away, and they
reopen the tender. So it's very good news.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
They're allowing bids from wool suppliers, but they can still
decide to go with synthetic. Does that disappoint.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
You No, No, Look all that we were asking for
from Kying Order was a chance to be able to
show them not just the price of wool and how
we can compete on price, but how we can compete
on value and significantly outperform synthetic carpets as well. And

(01:11):
you know, I have full confidence in our wall carpet
companies that they can show coying or order that there's
a huge amount of value that maybe needs to be
accounted for by coying order and have a slightly higher weighting.
You know, the value of wool is you know, it's natural,
it's flame resistant, it's warmer, it's more absorbent, all these
things that actually mean that it's a better and healthier

(01:32):
alternative for the people that they're putting into their community housing.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
That's I did talk bick about this when the issue
first came up, and everyone said, you just said, will
it's more absorbent and the problem with people in kying
or houses, they're constantly spilling stuff on carpets one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, And you know, wool carpets are more durable as well.
They actually, if they're looked after, they can actually be
a lot more durable, last a lot longer. So there's
a wee bit of an education that needs to happen
around there as well. But this is all stuff that
we can we can do. You know that this can happen.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So is it an even playing field? But between synthetic
and wall.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Now, I think being able to be a being able
to put a proposal in makes it an even playing
field in this instance. And saying that, I do think
that the waiting around environmental care and you know the
value of wall versus just having a cost conversation is

(02:31):
going to be really important going forward and that's where
we need our government agencies to be thinking not just
about cost but about value for the New Zealand people.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
All Right, Kara, I think I congratulate you and I
thank you for your time today. That's Kara Biggs, the
campaign for woll General Manager. I've always been a fan
of Will. I've always been a fan of Wall carpets.
I do not understand why Will has been a dying trade.
More the better as far as I concern for more
fam Earlily Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.