Simon Bridges National Party MP simonbridges.co.nz

The government's decision to extend stringent restrictions in Auckland and level two restrictions elsewhere without additional urgent support has sadly already seen many Kiwi businesses go under.

Many more hundreds will too if the Labour government doesn't step up to help them through.

New Zealand's economy is driven by the many thousands of ambitious, hardworking small and medium enterprise (SME) owners. SMEs comprise 97 per cent of all Kiwi enterprises and employ more than a third of our people.

As such, these businesses hold the key to New Zealand's economic recovery from Covid. It's inarguable, then, that these business owners should be at the front of the government's mind.

Instead, the government's lack of additional targeted support for businesses suggests it is okay with the fact that many will go to the wall, meaning thousands more Kiwis will lose their livelihoods.

We know Delta levels three and four mean no, or next to no revenue for the majority of SMEs, while revenue is severely constrained for many businesses operating at level two outside of Auckland. This is especially the case for our hospitality and retail businesses.

I'm hearing each week from business owners in hospo and retail here in Tauranga who're taking on more and more debt – including taking on bigger mortgages – to meet mounting weekly fixed costs like rent, power and paying staff and suppliers.

More than this, though, they feel the weight of responsibility for the livelihoods of the families of their staff and suppliers which depend on their businesses staying afloat.

We're not talking about a few operations here and there. This will be catastrophic for hundreds of hospo and retail businesses nationally. A recent survey by Hospitality New Zealand, for example, showed more than 80 per cent of hospo businesses weren't sustainable after four weeks at level four.

The Labour government must urgently do two things to save the many businesses here in Tauranga and across New Zealand at breaking point.

Firstly, it should adopt National's Business Rental Support Package, to better support both tenants and landlords in meeting weekly overheads. Secondly, it must set a target to have 70-75 per cent of Kiwis double vaccinated in the first instance, and work to this at pace.

At this level of vaccination, Covid can still be stamped out by using tools and techniques widely available in other counties, such as saliva testing, rapid antigen testing, aggressive contact tracing and, as a last resort, regional lockdowns.

And let's remember, New Zealand had the slowest vaccine rollout in the OECD before the current outbreak occurred. This meant Delta spread faster, and our current lockdown is longer than it would've been if we hadn't been so slow at vaccinating Kiwis.