Covid-19: Govt 'actively considering' more support as businesses issue plea for help
Wednesday, 16 February 2022
The Government is “actively considering” lending more financial assistance to some Covid-19 impacted businesses.
This comes after more than 60 cultural institutions in Auckland’s city centre issued a plea of help to Minister of Finance Grant Robertson asking for more support as the Omicron outbreak takes a toll on their bottom line.
Robertson said the Government was continually monitoring the impacts, but data showed overall economic activity was down “only a little”.
“However for some sectors, including hospitality, the drop in business has already been significant,” Robertson said.
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“As with the recently announced arts and creative sector package we are actively considering whether further, targeted support for some sectors is necessary, and we will make announcements in the near future as appropriate.”
Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick, who penned the open letter, said the political decisions made in the coming days and weeks would mean “life or death” for many.
The Government needed to help reduce commercial rent, extend interest-free and Government-backed loans schemes, and revive the wage subsidy, resurgence payment or other targeted support, the letter read.
It should also support Auckland Council in providing reductions or flexibility in payment of rate bills, licensing and administrative fees, as well as simplifying application processes.
Businesses that signed the letter ranged from music venues like Neck of the Woods, Whammy Bar and Studio The Venue, to well-known restaurants and cafes including Gemmayze Street, Cazador and Ockhee, and bars such as SOAP and Longroom.
“In Auckland Central, the resilience of our cultural infrastructure has been tested time and again,” Swarbrick said.
“Through two years of fighting with commercial landlords, taking on board more debt and risk and creating, innovating and ‘pivoting,’ we cannot let the doors close indefinitely at the last hurdle.”
A $120 million funding top-up announced for the arts sector this week was welcomed, but many who worked in the “ecosystem of a good day or night out” had “fallen through the gaps”, she said.
Save Our Venues director Steve Newall said many businesses only had “weeks to months left” without increased support.
The absence of a wage subsidy and resurgence payments had hit many hard, Newall said.
“We've got a much better chance preserving what exists now, than trying to rebuild things that are no longer around.”
Robertson said the small business cashflow loans scheme was still open for applications until December next year. The short term absence payment and leave support schemes were also still in place.
Swarbrick said no one was “pretending things were sustainable or perfect” before the pandemic hit.
But if the people and places that “give our city its vibrancy” were lost, it would knock Auckland back by more than 10 years, she said.
While technically, many small venues could open under the red light restrictions, legally, they could not really operate because of capacity limits, she said.
“Nobody wants to be a vector for the virus and next to none want to ‘loosen’ things up, lest it causes harm to the communities they love and are accountable to.”
Without support, some were faced with the “impossible ethical dilemma” of keeping staff or accepting “grey area private functions,” where rules didn't apply as they did in normal business operations, she said.
“There’s no more ‘fat’ to trim. We’re left with the bare bones.”