Covid-19: Auckland hospitality sector desperate for more help, restaurateur says

Thursday, 16 September 2021

An Auckland restaurateur says the city’s hospitality sector is on the verge of ruin unless there's more help to get through Covid-19 “chaos”.

Tony McGeorge, owner of multiple restaurants including Cafe Hanoi, Saan and Ghost Street, penned an open letter to Auckland mayor Phil Goff stating he had “not shown the leadership the city needs.”

“We have seen little evidence of strong advocacy on behalf of the city or plans to relieve the impact of the response to Covid-19 on Auckland businesses,” McGeorge wrote.

It was important for Auckland businesses to have as “strong of advocator as possible” and Goff was the right person to stand up for their concerns at central government level, he said.

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The letter raised a number of urgent issues, including allowing Auckland businesses to access wage subsidies at alert level 2, MIQ facilities being removed from the central city and more investment to help the city rebound.

Goff, in a letter to Minister of Finance Grant Robertson on Monday, said he was aware the continuation of lockdown was “imposing strain on people and businesses.”

The mayor said he wanted to work with Robertson to ensure “support that can and should be given” to help was in place as the city moved into extended lockdown.

“Auckland is not asking for treatment that any region subject to stronger lockdown measures would not be fairly entitled to.”

He appreciated the many demands from businesses for support but said the Government clearly would not be able to meet the costs from all of them.

Particular consideration needed to be given to continuing Resurgence Support Payments through alert level 2 and to help businesses that have fixed costs such as rent - but no income - get some support, he said.

Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said Auckland’s central city had lost more than $80 million in consumer spending since the latest lockdown started and many businesses were “screaming out for help”.

Restaurant Association of New Zealand chief executive Marisa Bidois said hospitality business owners were “frantic with worry” about how they could survive much longer.

The Government needed to “acknowledge and fairly compensate” businesses bearing the majority of the cost associated with the current Covid-19 response, Bidois said.

The association was also submitting a proposal to the minister of finance about what forms additional financial assistance could take, she said.

In terms of the quarantine facilities, McGeorge said he was “realistic” central and local government couldn’t pivot from a strategy “they've had for 18 months”.

“The expectation is demand for MIQ is going to reduce greatly and when that occurs central Auckland facilities should be the first ones to close down because they are in the riskiest part of the country,” he said.

McGeorge did acknowledge the importance of a lockdown and was not arguing the country should “open up and learn to live with Covid-19”.

“The Auckland lockdown is creating great expense and incredible uncertainty. We fear that this may continue for months to come and into 2022.

“We’re saying that more needs to be done to mitigate its impact on good businesses and the people they employ,” he said.

Goff was also seeking to address the issue of needing purpose-built long-term quarantine facilities, rather than using inner-city hotels from which the virus had “on several occasions escaped into the community”.

Goff and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment have been approached for comment.