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The price is wrong

A shake-up of the building industry is long overdue.

In Editorial

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12th May, 2012
Fletcher Building chief executive Jonathan Ling probably didn’t mean to come across as allergic to competition when he commented recently on a wave of cheap building materials being imported into New Zealand. “They’re attacking our market,” he said of the German, South African, Malaysian and other suppliers bringing in cement, insulation, wallboard, laminates and steel products – hoping, no doubt, to capitalise on the eagerly awaited reconstruction boom in Christchurch. But Ling’s reference to “our market” suggests an all-too-comfortable dominance of New Zealand’s construction ...

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