Martinez gave up work as a flight attendant earlier in the year, worried about the future of the career given the pandemic, and opted to follow her dream of setting up her own business. Brewport is an Auckland microbrewery bar, which opened in November. She said it was likely that businesses forced to close would need support. “We are finding it hard already as a new small business and so many other small businesses are struggling, it’s going to be really difficult to survive if there is a long level 3 or level 4.” Josh Helm echoes her sentiments. The owner of a number of Auckland hospitality businesses including Orphans Kitchen, Kingi and Daily Bread, was still working out on Sunday evening what the change to the alert levels would mean.
The Government should be congratulated for getting some Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 confirmed for rollout from next week, Seymour said on Friday, but he also highlighted the role he believes the Opposition played in getting us there. This has been a triumph of constructive Opposition, with ACT putting pressure on since early January for the Government to do better on the vaccine rollout in the wake of new more virulent strains changing the COVID landscape.
Seymour said it was frankly embarrassing that 75 countries have already administered 152 million doses of vaccine. He has also criticised COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins for saying in November New Zealand was at the front of the queue.
The government will prioritise extending the small business loan scheme, rolling out the flexi-wage job support programme and fast-tracking more infrastructure projects in the weeks leading up to Christmas.