The Finance Minister is defending the comparison period for the Government's new business support package.

From Monday, some will be eligible for up to $24,000 over six weeks.  

They have to prove a 40 percent drop in revenue over seven consecutive days within the six weeks before phase two of the Omicron response, compared to after.  

Grant Robertson told Mike Hosking they've always done the payments this way. 

“We run the risk, if we do a comparative period to a year ago, that we miss the 145,000 businesses that have been created in the last year.” 

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