Rangitikei MP Ian McKelvie believes society is going to be facing a lot of challenges in the coming years even with support from the Budget. Photo / File
Rangitikei MP Ian McKelvie believes society is going to be facing a lot of challenges in the coming years even with support from the Budget. Photo / File
Rangitikei MP Ian McKelvie believes the government has a huge challenge on its hands following this week's Budget.
On Thursday afternoon the Government's Budget announcement included a $50 billion Covid-19 recovery plan in a bid to save almost 140,000 jobs nationwide.
McKelvie said he gave credit to the government fortrying to preserve jobs but believed the real challenge was going to be the implementation.
"They're expecting a lot of the government and if they can manage that then that's great but I think the government is going to be challenged to make their way through it all," he said.
The National MP said the wage subsidy scheme had worked well and he hoped the government's decision to extend it would not be too late for too many people but he believed it was the right thing to do with certain conditions in place.
"The problem with those businesses that are receiving the wage subsidy on behalf of their employees is that they've got so many other overheads that inevitably some are going to fall by the wayside and I think that's the real challenge that we've got as a country," he said.
From spending time in Wellington over recent days he could already see a change in everyday life and the impact Covid-19 is already having.
"What I'm really trying to emphasise is I think our world has changed more then we understand and I just hope that the adverse impact on people is not as significant as I suspect it might be."
Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced the $50 billion Covid-19 recovery Budget yesterday from Parliament. Photo / File
He said there were going to be some challenges society was going to have to face.
"I hope that it has the impact [the Government] is expecting and that it doesn't have serious long-term effects on our younger generations really because it is a massive undertaking."
As part of the Budget, the government announced a $400 million targeted tourism support fund which McKelvie believes would inevitably benefit the tourism sector.
The upper part of the Rangitikei electorate relies heavily on tourism, he said, and it was important to get people travelling around New Zealand as quickly as possible.
"The other thing that impacts the tourism industry is domestic tourism and the fact is many people have been forced to take their annual leave as part of the wage subsidy in the last six weeks so New Zealanders aren't going to have the freedom they ordinarily have because they don't have that annual leave available to them."
He believes getting the ski season up and running at Mt Ruapehu was hugely important for the north of the Rangitikei and Whanganui.
He also believed the Whanganui River was a very important tourist attraction that benefited both regions and it is important to have local river attractions up and running again as soon as possible.
Whanganui MP Harete Hipango and MP for Te Tai Hauāuru, Adrian Rurawhe were both contacted for a comment.
