Lockdown ‘off to a good start’

Prime Minister happy with way Day 1 has gone

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday demanded the names of landlords treating tenants poorly during the coronavirus lockdown.

She said it was “obviously frustrating” to hear about tenants not being treated with compassion, but most New Zealanders were doing the right thing.

Ardern said the lockdown was “broadly” running smoothly so far, having only being announced on Monday.

The Government’s coronavirus alert level 4 came into effect at 11.59pm on Wednesday and will be in place for at least four weeks.

Ardern said supermarkets were “generally” orderly and panic-buying seemed to have subsided.

She reminded people to only shop when they needed to, preferably only one person per household.

And she said people should act as if they had Covid-19.

The Prime Minister also thanked nurses, doctors, police and firefighters for their efforts, as well as supermarket workers and bank tellers and cleaners who were also now frontline workers.

Ardern had previously worked at a checkout, and she said it was hard to imagine what they had gone through in previous weeks.

“There will be the odd issue here and there,” she said, but the country had started well.

Vulnerable Kiwis to get $27m

Cabinet has approved a $27m package for social sector groups to help those most vulnerable to deal with the increase in demand for such services during the lockdown.

It would help ensure society’s most vulnerable had a place to live and food to eat, and to help those suffering from family violence.

Salvation Army did 3100 parcels last week, with higher demand in Auckland and Northland, Ardern said. Women’s Refuge would also get more funding, and more shelters for victims will be made available.

Aus routes still open

Ardern said the 109 Kiwis on a cruise ship in Perth could still get home using commercial Air NZ flights, even though those flights were not as frequent

as normal.

How Parliament will work

The Prime Minister said Parliament would not sit again until April 28, but a special select committee chaired by National leader Simon Bridges would allow accountability. The committee will meet on Tuesday at 10am, and will be held remotely.

Kiwi workers paid $1.5b

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said yesterday $1.5 billion had been

paid out under the wage subsidy scheme for 244,887 workers; 72,913 applications had been paid out.

He said officials worked around the clock to process the applications.

The scheme was available to all businesses, he said. It was designed for employers to make their “best endeavours” to pay workers 80 per cent of their normal wage, and he urged businesses to talk to banks and workers to prevent layoffs.

Robertson said any business not properly passing on the wage subsidy

to workers would be looked into.

He said he would also look into practices around the Government’s sick leave scheme for people who were taking leave because of Covid19, after reports some workers were being forced to use sick leave.

Robertson said it was hard to predict how high the unemployment rate would get to, but it would be much worse than the GFC.

Some economists have predicted it will hit 30 per cent, but Robertson said there were predictions that were much lower.

The wage subsidy scheme had saved hundreds of thousands of jobs already, he said.

Robertson was looking at a universal basic income beyond the next 12 weeks, when the wage subsidy scheme is set to end — though it may also be extended.

“Income support is going to be an important issue over the coming months.”

Fines or jail if businesses stay open

Asked about some Mad Butcher stores being open yesterday, Ardern said businesses could be fined $4000 or jailed for three to six months if they were improperly open. She said the Mad Butcher should not be open.

Allowing every food outlet to be open would undermine the goal of the lockdown, she said.

National had earlier asked for greengrocers and butchers to be opened in smaller communities, but Ardern said dairies and superettes had been allowed to be open for that reason.

“The whole goal for this period is for people to limit contact with one another.”

Rents frozen

Robertson also clarified that rent increases were now frozen for the next six months. Landlords cannot kick out tenants except under limited reasons, he said, such as assaults or threats, or damages to a property, or if a tenant is 60 days behind in rent payments.

On Wednesday Ardern implored people to act as if they had Covid19 and to stay at home.

The Ministry of Health said yesterday there were 78 new cases — confirmed and probable — of Covid19 overnight, bringing the total number to 283 cases.

They were mostly linked to overseas travel, but several clusters of suspected community transmission were being looked into including: ● Marist College in Auckland ● the World Hereford cattle conference in Queenstown ● a wedding in Wellington ● a trip by a Wellington group of friends to the US ● a contact with the Ruby Princess in Hawke’s Bay ● a rest home in Hamilton. Seven people are in hospital with Covid-19, all in a stable condition.

There are three in Wellington regional hospital, two in Nelson hospital and one each in Waikato and Northland hospitals. None is in ICU.

On Wednesday a record 2417 tests tests were processed in New Zealand.

A total of 12,683 tests have now been carried out.