Pandemic group discusses aid
Marlborough’s community leaders are discussing the best ways to support businesses affected by coronavirus, in view of a central government package announced this week.
Representatives from key industries, health authorities and Marlborough District Council met for their third pandemic group plan meeting on Friday morning.
Kaikoura MP Stuart Smith, who instigated the meetings, said they discussed the best ways Marlborough businesses could be supported, and suggested something similar to the package developed after the Kaikoura earthquakes.
‘‘It gets money to the businesses so they can keep the jobs open, keep the businesses viable so that when the crisis passes, they’re able to just get up and running very quickly,’’ he said.
‘‘That support in that package would be aimed at allowing employers to support their employees. If people have to let all their employees go, then when conditions change again they’ve got to find and train employees again.’’
Smith said industries such as forestry, crayfish and tourism were seeing the effects, but they were expecting the real impacts to hit later.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said last week ministers were ‘‘actively considering a range of options’’ on how to support businesses and workers hit hard by coronavirus.
Marlborough Chamber of Commerce chief executive Hans Neilson said they had been providing input to the central Government on what the region wanted out of this support, and they had been representing the interests of small business from a ‘‘Marlborough lens’’.
Marlborough mayor John Leggett said industry groups from the top of the south briefed government ministers on the ‘‘current and potential effects’’ of coronavirus earlier in the week in Nelson.
He encouraged Marlborough businesses to think about a plan for how they might operate if the virus came to Marlborough.
‘‘My advice to all employers in Marlborough is start thinking about your contingency planning if we get the coronavirus here,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s important we all appreciate how each part of the Marlborough economy might be affected should we have to change how we operate.
‘‘Some industries may be able to help others – we’re all in this together.’’
The meetings have been attended by community leaders and industries, including Marlborough Primary Health Organisation, Chamber of Commerce, Civil Defence and Emergency Management, and Wine Marlborough.
Although he said he was ‘‘not alarmed’’ by coronavirus, Smith said the Marlborough community could not afford to take it lightly.
‘‘We’re at the point where Italy was two months ago, and we’re heading into winter,’’ Leggett said.
He praised the ‘‘tough calls’’ made in Italy last week and said Marlborough’s leaders would be ‘‘planning for the worst’’.
‘‘Making the tough calls is what leadership and governing’s all about. You’re only really tested when the hard decisions are made, not the easy ones.’’
Covid-19 has already caused the cancellation of a number of events around the country, including Marlborough’s annual Framingham Harvest Party last week.