Dear John --

Our hearts go out to the people of Auckland and the Waikato who continue to live under Level 3 restrictions, and those Kiwis in the South Island who remain at Level 2 despite having no Covid cases for nearly a year.

None of you deserve the hardship that this pandemic has brought with it and it should be acknowledged. You are doing what needs to be done for the good of our society and at the very least you deserve a Government that acts with urgency to get you back to your ‘normal’ life.

National have already provided the Government with the answers to getting through Covid-19 with our Opening Up plan to end lockdowns and reopen to the world.

You will have seen that Labour have subsequently adopted many of our ideas including introducing saliva and rapid antigen testing, partnering with GPs and pharmacists, and allowing better access to data for Whānau Ora. They've also just announced another one of our policies reserving MIQ spaces for healthcare workers – as we have been urging them to do for many months.

The good news is that National have been working hard to come up with more solutions, and today we launched our economic plan 'Back in Business' - National's plan to save livelihoods and unleash our economy.

John, back our President's Appeal today to help us get our plan out to Kiwis.

The Government cannot just continue to borrow while locking down our economy and hoping for the best. Since the initial Covid outbreak:

• around 80,000 New Zealanders have been pushed onto welfare.
• there are now more than 190,000 working age Kiwis on the JobSeeker benefit.
• the closure of the border wiped $20 billion from our economy with the loss of international students and tourists.

In the two months before the latest outbreak more than 11,000 businesses closed their doors for good. Without urgent action, this lockdown will see many more businesses and their workers go the same way. This can be avoided with the right plan and National has it.

Our plan is focused on two phases:

Phase 1 - Respond to the immediate economic impact of Covid

This includes a raft of initiatives that National would implement to provide immediate support to struggling businesses, offer smarter rules for managing lockdowns, and make it easier for businesses to operate.

→ Part A - Offer immediate support to save jobs and keep businesses afloat

• Fix the wage subsidy
• Implement rental support
• Extend the loss carry-back scheme

→ Part B - Provide clarity around public health rules for business

• Give business legal certainty on vaccinations
• Create smarter alert level rules
• Fix alert level regional boundaries

→ Part C - Reduce the burden on businesses and workers

• Cut taxes for small businesses
• Cut taxes for workers
• Freeze costly new regulations
• Create incentives for business investment
• Deliver mental health support for small businesses

→ Part D - Deliver targeted support to save highly affected industries

• Distribute 'dine and discover' vouchers
• Allow restaurants & bars to extend outdoor seating
• Establish an insurance scheme for major events
  
  

Phase 2 - Evolve our approach to reduce the cost of public health restrictions

National believes the business sector should play a much bigger role in our Covid response. As we head towards our 85-90% vaccination milestone, business needs a clear plan for moving away from blanket restrictions to a more sophisticated model based on trust and technology.

→ Part A - Set a clear strategy and a date for reopening

Commit to ending lockdowns, reopening our economy, and reconnecting to the world when we hit 85-90% vaccination (along with DHB and age-based milestones), or on 1st December, whichever comes earlier.

→ Part B - Explain what it means for business when we get there

• Smarter public health rules
• Abolish regional boundaries
• Lockdowns become a last resort

→ Part C - Reopen the border and reconnect to the world

• Implement a traffic light system
• Resume business travel, tourism and international education
• Lift the RSE cap to support the agricultural sector and the Pacific
• Restore access to skilled and investor migrants

You can read more on our full economic plan here.

The current Government inherited a very strong fiscal position created by governments of various stripes over the last 25 years. But our economy now faces real risk.

On the surface things might feel good, but in reality New Zealand is using the credit card just to pay for groceries, and a number of warning lights are starting to flash red. Right now, we are borrowing on average about $110 million every day. 

We’ve been down the path before of big governments that borrow big and tax bigger. That’s not what New Zealand needs. We need to back business. Business is really just people. People with an idea, some capital, and the confidence, talent, drive, and courage to take a risk. People who back themselves. They need a government that backs them too.

I back those Kiwis. National backs those Kiwis.

Our plan will save the livelihoods of New Zealanders and get our economy back on its feet.

Have a read and let us know what you think and if you are able to support us with a donation to aid us getting our plan and our hope for New Zealand out to Kiwis, please click here to do so.

Hang in there – I’m thinking of you and fighting on your behalf.

Regards

Judith


Judith Collins
National Party Leader

P.S. We need to get our economic plan out in front of as many Kiwis as possible. Back our President's Appeal and help us fund the campaign.