Leaders seek long-term strategy

A group of senior business leaders is calling for the Government to be more transparent about its plans to get New Zealand from crisis to ‘‘Covid-normal’’.

The group includes: Patrick Strange, chairman of Chorus New Zealand and Auckland Airport; Prue Flacks, chairwoman of Mercury Energy; Joan Withers, chairwoman of The Warehouse Group; Rob Campbell, chairman of SkyCity, Tourism Holdings and Summerset and chancellor of AUT University; and Scott St John, chancellor of the University of Auckland and chairman of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.

Strange said the events of the past few weeks had shown the Covid-19 virus was now part of how we live and work both here in New Zealand and globally.

He said that while the Government could not be faulted in its near-term action, and New Zealand was in a good position thus far, it was one thing to manage the day-to-day response and another to get out of a crisis with a longterm strategy. ‘‘Our concern is that there is no visibility of that strategy. We are here to help.’’

While Britain had performed poorly in some parts of its Covid19 response, its government had clearly laid out publicly what its strategy was for recovery, he said.

‘‘That lets everyone get their shoulder to the wheel.’’

Vaccinations would help and would probably stop Covid-19 being a pandemic, he said, but the virus was not going away.

The country was falling behind others’ testing regimes, he said.

Many places were using regular saliva testing, as recommended by the Simpson Roche report last year. ‘‘What progress has been made on that in New Zealand is not apparent. Some businesses have gone out and started doing it themselves.

‘‘As a group we share the strong desire of the New Zealand business community to support the country’s response to Covid-19 in any way we can.’’

Strange said it could take a year or two to develop the technological strategies that helped

Taiwan avoid a lockdown. ‘‘We need to be . . . getting onto it.’’

Strange said there was a twospeed economy. Big businesses with access to capital were fine but many small businesses would go bust.

Unemployment numbers overall were low but the effect had not been evenly felt. Areas such as South Auckland had been hardest hit and that could have longlasting effects, he said.

‘‘This is a plea to let us in and let us help ... We have got to look long term, otherwise we are dealing with lockdowns forever.’’

Withers said that while big businesses had the capacity to deal with the uncertainty and change, smaller businesses did not have the same resilience.

Flacks said ‘‘major New Zealand businesses would welcome the opportunity to assist the Government in its longer-term planning’’ by providing input and expertise into its strategy for virus management.

The group wants the country’s long-term strategy to be made available beyond government circles. They said they wanted a clear explanation of the key metrics, thresholds and milestones officials were tracking to judge the ongoing performance against this strategy over time.

They also wanted detail of New Zealand’s access to vaccines, including the timing and size of each tranche through the ongoing programme, and publication of testing capacity and strategy.