Winston Peters says country likely to move to level 3 next week

Thursday, 16 April 2020

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says the country is likely to come out of lockdown next week.

Peters has also indicated New Zealand's borders would remain closed until there was 'working vaccine' and has slammed the World Health Organisation.

Peters told Newstalk ZB on Thursday, 'a whole lot' of businesses could reopen next week, as long as they met requirements and guidelines, some of which was expected to be revealed today.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is set to announce on Monday whether the level 4 lockdown will come to end at midnight next Wednesday, or whether it will be extended.

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'Unless there is an adverse finding… the evidence looks compelling for that,' Peters said.

Peters criticised WHO for not declaring the pandemic earlier and when asked if he would consider withdrawing funding like US President Donald Trump, he told TVNZ's Breakfast it was his personal view that WHO did not act fast enough.

'We have got to face the facts. We are all responsible, we are all accountable, we have got to be transparent. We have got taxpayer money going to these organisations. I'm not saying I would be in the mind of Donald Trump in terms of withdrawing funding but we are entitled to ask the serious question,' were you up to scratch at this critical time'.'

He kept hearing that coronavirus was not a pandemic, he said.

'It was a serious pandemic and if we could have got there a lot earlier, a whole lot of lives could have been saved,' he told Breakfast.

'I think the WHO should have been saying so a long time before they did.'

New Zealand did not get the facts out of China or internationally at the time, he said.

'We were not getting the earliest enough warnings, let's be honest here. We are paying for an operation, we need to know that it is operating at its maximum efficient value and not underperforming … on that score it is very hard to explain what they didn't see the level of this crisis - they are after all the WHO.'

It would now be a 'fair time' before New Zealand's borders would reopen, he said.

'Not until we see, I believe, a worldwide vaccine that is working. Our borders will be much more closely guarded and much more closely inspected then ever before.'

However, New Zealand was currently in talks with Australia about creating a trans-Tasman open bubble.

'If things keep on going that way, that is a serious possibility, yes we are exploring that as we speak,' he told TVNZ.

On Wednesday Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government would switch its emphasis to allowing 'safe' and not just 'essential' economic activity when it brought the country out of level 4.

Although the country spent a couple of days at 'level 3' before going into full lockdown, the rules during a return to level 3 may be different, he said.

Robertson told BusinessNZ the Government would release guidance on Thursday on how businesses could operate 'under reduced alert levels and what measures need to be taken for them to do so'.

'If we are ready to move to alert level 3, businesses will have two days to implement arrangements,' he said.

'What I can say now is that our emphasis at level 3 moves from 'essential' economic activity to 'safe' economic activity,' he said.

Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said its members were preparing to offer contactless food delivery and takeaways, but needed detail on the 'new' level 3 restrictions to work out how they could operate within the rules.

'Apparently it's not going to be like the old level 3.'

Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said it was awaiting details but had picked up that the 'new' level 3 would be more restrictive than the 'old' level 3 that New Zealand went into for two days in March.

He hoped online shopping would be allowed as normal, as well as 'click and collect' type arrangements at stores 'as long as that can be managed safely'.

Harford also hoped retailers would be able to let customers into their shops if they could ensure social distancing.

'It is not going to be practical in all cases.'

The New Zealand Association of Registered Hairdressers was told by the Government under level 3, salons would have to remain closed but online sales of items approved by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment could go ahead.

No industry-related events of more than 100 people could go ahead.