National supports the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme announced today as a mechanism to keep businesses in business and New Zealanders in jobs, National’s Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“During this period of massive disruption it is critical that businesses have access to working capital so they have the liquidity to stay in business and can, in turn, keep New Zealanders in jobs.

“National has been calling for a business lending guarantee scheme for weeks and we welcome this announcement.

“However, the upper limit of $80 million turnover seems arbitrary. There will be bigger firms with large numbers of employees that may need some assistance.

“National supports the wage subsidy scheme for businesses but we have growing concerns about whether the final design of the scheme is as effective as it could be at keeping New Zealanders in jobs now that we have moved to a full lockdown.

“We encourage the Government to closely monitor the effectiveness of the scheme; it may be insufficiently generous to stop widespread business closure and job losses.

“The Government should urgently consider suggestions from the New Zealand Initiative about alternative models for short-term subsidy schemes to save jobs.”

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