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Grant Robertson: 'This will be the worst quarter NZ has seen"

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 14 Sep 2020, 7:52PM
Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Photo / File
Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Photo / File

Grant Robertson: 'This will be the worst quarter NZ has seen"

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 14 Sep 2020, 7:52PM

The announcement of Auckland staying at alert level 2.5 and the rest of the country at level 2 for at least a week is not the news local businesses wanted to hear.

Heather du Plessis-Allan spoke with Finance Minister Grant Robertson on the governments latest alert level announcement and asked Robertson why the rest of the country was not in level 1 already.

Robertson says "we just need one more week to be absolutely sure we have locked in the elimination of this particular sub-cluster". 

The minister cited the last time we were in level 2 was for 26 days before moving down to level 1. Currently the second round of level 2 has lasted 14 days.

"As long as the numbers stay where they are...we will be in to level one in a weeks time"

In regards to the loosening of restrictions around social distancing on public transport, including air travel, Robertson says the government has received differentiating advice with health officials reassessing the amount of people permitted on planes.

He said it's particularly good news for Air New Zealand.

With the GDP set to be announced on Thursday many economists are predicting it to be worse than Australia due to New Zealand's lockdown being stricter than our neighbours across the ditch.

Our strong dependence on tourism is also a factor with Robertson saying it can make up between 7-8% of our GDP.

"This will be the worst quarter New Zealand has seen"

Robertson says this was always going to be the case due to the strategy the government took to eliminate Covid-19.

 

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