Finance Minister Grant Robertson says around 30,000 businesses have applied for the latest lockdown relief payment. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Finance Minister Grant Robertson says around 30,000 businesses have applied for the latest lockdown relief payment. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Some 30,000 businesses that weren't getting any form of government relief this year have taken up a special wage subsidy during this latest level 3 lockdown.
This morning Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that as of last night some 30,000 businesses had received financial help fromthe two-week-long Resurgence Wage Subsidy.
So far $108 million worth of payments had gone to those struggling during this latest lockdown period, he said.
"This is a tough time for everybody - I absolutely accept that - but I think if you look at the level of support of which we have to borrow as a government I think it has been a significant amount of support," said Robertson.
The Resurgence Wage Subsidy is for employers that weren't already getting the Wage Subsidy, Wage Subsidy Extension or the Leave Support Scheme for their employees.
Any business across the country can apply for it, with applications closing next Thursday.
Robertson said the Government took the call to get the latest business support plan out as quickly as possible because the business community has asked for a fast response and it was "what we think we should be able to do".
"What we're now talking about here is a very brief extension. We've had 22 weeks' worth of support for businesses through the wage subsidy scheme, about 12 and a half if you're in Auckland would have been at levels 2 and 1," adding the support continued during lower alert levels where trading was in near normal conditions.
"The ability to get down to those levels is the best thing we can do in terms of supporting businesses. So overall, I think the contribution has been significant but I don't underestimate how tough a second set of restrictions like this is.
"This is level 3. You've got probably 80 per cent of businesses operating at the level they want to and 20 per cent not. It's tough for that group but there's been a huge amount of support and that funding is available right now."
He said a 40 full-time equivalent business would be able to access $46,000 immediately.
Robertson remained confident in the Government's approach to providing additional financial support during the crisis.
"We've got schemes that are going through the rest of this year, for example, the Covid Income Relief payment, which is available for people who do lose their jobs, and we'll keep monitoring how those schemes are going. But we're focused on getting ourselves pretty much in a position to be able to see the economy operate well."
He said July figures showed the economy had performed better than 2019, at 2 per cent up on last year.
"I think the initial pent-up demand was certainly there but most commentators were saying we were coming out better and stronger and that remains our approach - to get on top of this particular outbreak we've got now and get ourselves back into a normal trading environment or as close to normal as possible."
Robertson said the Government was actively working with the farming community to see specialist agricultural roles filled.
"Obviously we do have a lot of people in New Zealand now who are out of work, we also have some people who are here from overseas that are on working visas. We want to make sure we do make the best use of the people that are here. We're looking at all the creative ways of supporting people into that work," said Robertson.
Where the specialist roles couldn't be filled by someone in New Zealand the Government would look at filling them with people from overseas, he said.
