The Government needs to recognise that it’s employers around the country who are rolling the dice each day, trying to
decide whether to battle on or give up, to employ or not to employ, National’s Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said
today.
Mr Goldsmith was responding to the Prime Minister’s comments in the House today to the effect that coming out of
lockdown too soon would be ‘rolling the dice’.
“It is certain that if we remain in lockdown longer, more jobs will be lost.
“The Government has to weigh them against the possibility of job losses in the future if health measures fail to control
another outbreak and the country has to ‘Yo-Yo’ back into lockdown.
“But waiting for absolute certainty about the future costs real jobs, now.
“New Zealand has seen 1,000 people joining the dole queue every day these past few weeks, and that’s at a time when 1.6
million Kiwis are being temporarily sustained in work by the $10 billion wage subsidy.
“As the wage subsidy comes to an end there is the real risk of mass unemployment.
“We should look for every opportunity, every week to allow more New Zealanders to get back to work.”