No more wage subsidy extension: PM
WELLINGTON: The wage subsidy scheme will end some three weeks before the election, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed yesterday.
‘‘We have clearly signalled the wage subsidy is not something can go on for the nevernever,’’ she told journalists after a rousing speech to about 600 Labour Party faithful and an online audience of thousands for the party’s traditional electionyear congress.
Extending the wage subsidy beyond its current cutoff of September 1 risked delaying ‘‘the critical work that businesses may need to do to pivot into the new Covid environment’’.
‘‘Businesses themselves have said that continuing for too long could run the risk of being harmful for the longterm resilience of some of those businesses,’’ she said.
The subsidy scheme has so far cost some $12.3 billion, according to the Ministry of Social Development’s June 26 update, and has covered some 1.7 million employees.
Ms Ardern pointed to the $400 million tourism recovery package the Government was starting to enact and the existence of a Covid19related employment loss benefit that was equivalent to the minimum wage, which was now available for people whose jobs no longer existed because of Covid19.
Her comments came as the Government yesterday announced the extension of oneoff loans to small businesses, administered by the Inland Revenue Department, through to the end of the year.
Ms Ardern used her speech to the Labour Party congress both to lay out what she called a fivepoint plan for recovery, and to argue the Government’s previous commitment to low levels of debt was justified as it had made the response to Covid19 possible.
‘‘New Zealand is a place where the unexpected can happen,’’ she said.
‘‘That’s why, when we were criticised for being focused on getting debt down to under 20% of GDP, we steadfastly argued that it was necessary — it was for a rainy day.’’
She praised the work of the Minister of Finance.
‘‘Thank you for your foresight Grant Robertson . . . You have been the finance minister New Zealand needed at this time, because that rainy day has arrived. Now is the time to put the umbrella up, to provide support to those who need it.’’
Responding to calls for a strategy for reopening New Zealand’s borders, including from former Labour prime minister Helen Clark, Ms Ardern said the Government had established a framework and that it would be proactively releasing Cabinet papers to outline its thinking.
She pointed to her answers in Parliament last week for guidance on the basic outline of an approach to allowing people to come into this country without requiring current levels of quarantine.
These included:
No community transmission in the country concerned;
Testing and contact tracing systems that were consistent with New Zealand’s;
Sufficient testing capacity in this country to meet demand; and
An overriding principle of ‘‘keeping New Zealanders safe’’.
‘‘There is no playbook for what the world is going through, no rules on what we should or shouldn’t be doing. That means we won’t always get it right, but it also means we can make our own choices, and have our own plan,’’ Ms Ardern said, acknowledging recent controversies and a case at the weekend of a woman quarantined in Auckland being arrested after absconding.
She defended the Government’s elimination strategy and national lockdown.
‘‘Had we chosen another path, if we’d chosen to have an ongoing tolerance of Covid and cases all around us in the community, I have no doubt we would still have restrictions in place that would be costing us in many, many ways.
‘‘The health response has not ended. It will need to be ongoing as the pandemic surges around us,’’ she said. — BusinessDesk