Brownlee backs southern restrictions
THE South may be Covid19free, but National’s deputy leader says Level 2 is still necessary.
With the election campaign back in full swing, National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee made a flying visit to Dunedin yesterday to campaign alongside local hopefuls Michael Woodhouse, who is standing in Dunedin, and Liam Kernaghan, the party’s candidate for Taieri.
His trip came hot on the heels of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters’ visit to the city on Monday.
During his southern trip, the deputy prime minister broke ranks with the Government and said the South Island should not be under Level 2 restrictions.
However, Mr Brownlee said health advice was that because so many people were moving around the country, it was a ‘‘natural precaution’’.
He was not concerned about Aucklanders’ ability to travel to places such as Queenstown, despite the outbreak in the North.
‘‘It is important that New Zealanders are able to move around as freely as they wish in their own country, so I don’t have too much problem with that.
‘‘I think as long as people are sensible, they recognise the symptoms, and they get tested . . . then I think that’s best thing.’’
He did think the criteria for how alert levels were set needed to be reexamined.
Among the trio’s stops for the day was Tuapeka Gold Print in Fairfield, where they were shown around the site and heard how the business had been affected by Covid19.
In June it had expected to cut up to 110 jobs.
Chief executive officer Greg Jolly said the biggest challenge for the business was immigration constraints brought on by changes to visa salary thresholds.
‘‘It’s incredibly unfair. A lot of our people have been here for five years, they’ve been really hardworking, loyal people who have passed on a lot of their knowledge to other people in the business,’’ he said.
Business was down about 43% on average, but the Government’s wage subsidy had allowed them to ‘‘think clearer’’, he said.
The challenge now was to know what the next three years would look like, he said.
Mr Brownlee described the business as an example of the ‘‘extraordinary innovation’’ in New Zealand’s business community.
‘‘It’s tough at the moment, very tough, and you see the quite emotional expression by the guys running this business, and the owner, about having to lay off staff, and that’s happening unfortunately right across the country and it’s not easy.
‘‘But they’re holding stuff together by taking that innovative approach, looking for what their new markets in the new, postCovid world could be like.’’