Business Hub: Business leaders seek detail on NZ government's Covid recovery plan

"When you are in a crisis – and I've been through a few – it's very easy to get into a reactionary mode," says senior business leader Patrick Strange.

Strange, who is part of a group of senior business leaders calling for more government transparency on Covid recovery plans, recalls dealing with the Auckland power crisis in 1998.

"You've quickly got to get your senior people and your management looking long-term otherwise you'll just make the hole deeper.

"You've got to plan you've got to put capabilities in place.

"And you've got to direct resources, otherwise you'll never get out of the hole," he says.

"I just think, for all the good things the Government has done, we're a little bit in danger of that."

Three weeks ago Strange, who is chairman of Chorus NZ and Auckland Airport, and a group of business leaders - including Mercury Energy chairwoman Prue Flacks; The Warehouse Group chairwoman Joan Withers; chairman of SkyCity, Summerset and Tourism Holdings Rob Campbell; and University of Auckland chancellor and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare chairman Scott St John - spoke out asking for more openness and clarity from the Government on its plan for getting New Zealand back to "Covid normal".

Since then, the Government has appointed a group which includes Rob Fyfe, Dr Debbie Ryan, Professor Phillip Hill, Dr Dale Bramley and chaired by Sir Brian Roche, to provide independent advice on the management and strategic direction of its Covid-19 response.

Strange says he is pleased with the independent panel but wants to see more detail about how it would work and report to the public.

"We haven't really got clarity on whether that panel is going to be truly independent and open. That's a big point we're making - its all about sunlight and clarity and data at this time."

"This is not about stirring just for the sake of stirring," Withers says.

"The Roche Simpson report hasn't received the traction and support in some areas that it should have done."

In September the Simpson Roche report (put together by Heather Simpson and Sir Brian Roche) highlighted a number of weaknesses in the surveillance and testing regime.

But it took several months for the report to be released publicly and some recommendations still hadn't been actioned.

"We understand there have been many meetings and senior business leaders have offered to assist with practical things like logistics and it doesn't appear they are getting the traction that they should," Withers says.

"This is just too important now. What we're seeing in areas like Queenstown has become a crisis."

Strange says debate about New Zealand's relative performance to date is getting in the way of progress.

And he is concerned that the Government is not trusting the public with information because of the uncertainty around it.

"It is uncertain," he says. "We might have done well or we might have done worse than other countries, who cares. It's happened."

"I think the Government was possibly nervous about being seen to over-commit and not being able to deliver. Well this is all too important for that."

Patrick Strange, chairman of Auckland Airport and Chorus NZ. Photo / File

"You've got to look at it the way a business would look at it," Withers says.

"You've got to mitigate the risks as much as you possibly can and you've got to decide what your risk appetite actually is."

The channels of communication between business and government were there and the potential to work with the Roche team was there, Strange says.

"But us getting a briefing behind closed doors, that's not what this is about.

"I do rate that team but I want to see transparency," he says.

"If the Government came out and said they're going to report to everybody every two or three or four weeks that would be a welcome change.

"The public's going to get pretty cynical if they write a report and it's sat on for three months again," he says.

"We just don't have time for that."