I’m often asked about Labour’s plan to handle the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on our economy. Part of our plan is to continue to be vigilant and work to keep the virus out of our communities so that we don’t need to go back into higher alert levels as other countries are sadly having to do. Our border regime, including quarantine and health checks, is one of the strongest in the world.

In addition, all of us need to continue to be vigilant on an individual level. In a recent Facebook live, our PM Jacinda Ardern made three requests of everyone. Firstly, please continue to maintain good physical hygiene – sneeze and cough into the crook of your elbow, wash your hands and stay home if you’re unwell. Secondly, download the contact tracing app and use it so that contact tracing is easier if it’s required at any stage. Finally, if you’re unwell and your GP offers you a COVID19 test, please take it. That helps the government keep tabs on community transmission.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll on the global economy and New Zealand is also affected.

We have a five-point COVID-19 recovery and rebuild plan and it’s already in motion. It’s about investing in our people to retrain and upskill, creating jobs, supporting small businesses that are creating employment opportunities, protecting our environment and strengthening our global position. Our plan is also about ensuring that when we are rebuilding, we’re building back better by investing in energy and waste management projects and addressing issues that are major challenges for our country in a way that also creates jobs.

Just in the past week, we passed the Equal Pay Amendment Bill, which will improve the process for raising and progressing pay equity claims and lead to fairer conditions and better pay for so many. We have also invested in Auckland Hospital to improve health services and invested over $50 million to support our international education sector.

The wage subsidy scheme that was put in place when the pandemic first hit us, has supported over 1.6 million jobs and enabled employers to hold on to their workers through the lockdown period and beyond. I have spoken to so many businesses owners who tell me that the wage subsidy scheme was a lifeline for them.

We’ve offered fee free apprenticeships and trades training and supported businesses to hold on to their apprentices and that’s meant we’re seeing a much larger number of apprentices retain their jobs compared to the situation during the recent financial crisis, for example.

A large part of our plan centres around job creation. We’ve created 11,000 jobs in work aligned with protecting our environment and we have invested in over 20,000 shovel-ready infrastructure jobs.

These investments aren’t just about immediate solutions either, these jobs are about investing in long-term issues too like housing, climate change, waste management and investing in our hospitals.

It’s also about supporting viable but vulnerable businesses to protect jobs. SMEs make up a large part of our economy and by offering additional support they are able to stay afloat and get ahead.

In addition to the wage subsidy scheme, the small businesses cash flow loan scheme was introduced to support businesses and organisations struggling because of loss of actual or predicted revenue as a result of COVID-19. By the end of July, this scheme was accessed by about 90,500 businesses. It has been extended till the end of 2020 to offer increased support to a larger number of SMEs.

Finally, our export sector has remained strong throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenue from dairy, meat and horticulture exports increased despite the pandemic. This is due to a combination of strong demand and trust in the hygiene and quality of New Zealand’s food processing, the fact that our primary industries were well positioned to weather the COVID-19 storm and the initiatives that our government signed up to when COVID-19 hit, to keep supply chains open

We have a plan in place to recover and rebuild from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – in a way that is sustainable – and we’re asking to keep going rather than to put the brakes on our nation’s recovery.

-by Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Labour List MP based in Maungakiekie, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities