Hon Phil Twyford
Minister of Transport
MP for Te Atatū

PĀNUI PĀPĀHO
MEDIA STATEMENT

Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today.

He said keeping the workforce required to build the pipeline of infrastructure projects is critical to our recovery.

“The decision to bring payments forward will provide financial relief through the four-week lockdown period to enable suppliers to retain their workforces, ensuring they can quickly re-start work and be in a strong position to respond to any future Government infrastructure packages,” Phil Twyford said.

“While we’ve put the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders first by going hard and early with our response to the pandemic, we are also planning for the post-lockdown economy.

“Making sure we can build more critical infrastructure as soon as possible will help stimulate the economy and help New Zealand make up its infrastructure deficit.

“The Transport Agency is also continuing planning and design work so that more projects are ready to move to construction as soon as works can resume,” Phil Twyford said.

Notes to editor:

While critical state highway maintenance work is continuing to be carried out to ensure the safe movement of essential goods and services during the COVID-19 response, all non-essential work on capital projects has been halted. The NZ Transport Agency is now offering a support package for non-essential services, with advance payments being made available to contractors who currently have projects in construction.

The Advanced Entitlement Payment (or AEP) will be available to contractors who currently have National Land Transport Programme funded projects in construction with the NZ Transport Agency.

More information on the AEP can be found here: www.nzta.govt.nz/covid19-aep

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