At long last, the borders are opening and as midnight strikes on July 31 New Zealand must stand tall to welcome
tourists, investors, students, and importantly skilled workers to show a bright future and once and for all banish our
obsession with gloom, says Auckland Business Chamber CEO, Michael Barnett.
“We have an opportunity to move beyond catastrophising the impacts of Covid on our country and become gloom busters
instead of switching off prospective visitors with our focus on reporting strained services, a health system unable to
cope, schools unable to cope, cancelled transport services, constraints to free movement and hotels and eateries closed
to comply with isolation requirements,” he said. “This is our moment to get our storytelling right so do not waste it.”
Businesses will be disappointed that planeloads of skilled migrants will not be arriving to get as many enterprises as
possible back to full strength, but borders opening is a significant milestone in living with the virus and economic,
social, and wellbeing recovery.