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Ardern says she is far away from being self-congratulatory

Wellington, July 6, 2020

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking at the Labour Congress on Sunday, July 5, 2020 (TVNZ Photo)

Labour is the best-placed party to guard against a post-Covid-19 economic disaster, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said.

Speaking at the Labour Party’s Congress in Wellington on Sunday, July 5, 2020, Jacinda Ardern said that she was eager to avoid the fallout of previous crises, including “poverty, inequality and “persistent unemployment.”

Pundits were quick to criticise Ardern for taking a ‘self-congratulatory tone’ in her remarks, but Ms Ardern told Morning Report that was not her intent at all.

Not self-congratulatory

“You will not find that at all in any of the remarks that I have made… if anyone listened to the speeches that were made, that is exactly the opposite of what we were doing. In my speech itself, acknowledging that the situation we are in, in New Zealand, is not over. We are still in the midst of a health response. We are at the beginning of our recovery and rebuild – this is not the time for anyone to rest on laurels,” she said.

Ms Ardern said she that and the Labour government take nothing for granted.

“I never have, never will. Anyone who knows me knows that I am as far away from self-congratulatory as you can probably get,” she said.

Original Plan

Aside from Covid-19, Labour is sticking to its original plan for New Zealand, Ms Ardern said.

“A number of the things that we campaigned on in 2017 are still issues that we have to address. We are not going to resolve climate change in three years. Nor are we going to restore the health of our waterways in three years, or reduce inequality. All of these persistent challenges remain. We have made progress, but Covid is our chance to accelerate our response to those,” she said.

Ms Ardern said that the government is making the biggest investment in infrastructure that she has seen in her lifetime.

“That is because it is necessary. It solves two problems, our deficit, and it helps with our economy recovery,” she said.

Ms Ardern said that the Trans-Tasman bubble is still viable and the government is open to taking a state-by-state approach.

Small Business Voice Chief Executive Max Whitehead (LinkedIn Photo)

Business Loan Scheme extended

She also announced an extension to the business loan scheme at the Labour congress.

The programme offers small and medium-sized businesses loans of between $10,000 and $100,000, with no interest charged if the loan is repaid within a year.

Small Business Voice Chief Executive Max Whitehead said that Scheme misses the mark.

“It is really not what we need. We are going through a difficult time and it has not been easy, but by supporting those businesses that are struggling and failing, it is actually prolonging their pain and that is not really healthy for our marketplace,” he said.

Mr Whitehead said that a number of businesses should be thinking about changing tact to increase revenue rather than taking the loan and hoping things go back to normal.

“There are new opportunities in the marketplace that people could fill rather than just sitting in a business waiting and gobbling up taxpayers’ money. When the wage subsidy scheme ends, the economic impact of Covid-19 will be laid bare,” he said.

The above Report has been published under a Special Arrangement with www.rnz.co.nz

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