The fund process for tourism is careless

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

The New Zealand Government’s attempt to make the criticism of Auditor-general appear light regarding the crash of tourism due to Covid-19 scramble, otherwise known as the Strategic Tourism Assets Protection Programme, is unconvincing.

It is not good for Stuart Nash to airily discharge the problems recognized by referring to the time pressure the Government in 2020 was witnessing and saying that with the beauty of hindsight there will always be lessons to learn.
The predecessor of Mr Nash, Kelvin Davis, has not spoken about the damning report. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has echoed the sentiments of Mr Nash.

John Ryan, the auditor-general in his 60-page report, clearly explained that his office did not expect perfection given the short time frames involved for Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) officials.

The $290 million rescue package designed in May 2020 was expected to help strategic tourism businesses in terms of funding decisions made in late July 2020. At first, it was hoped to cover up to 50 businesses, only 127 operators received grants or loans at the end, at least $166.1 million has been allocated.

By July 2020, MBIE officials, who Mr Ryan stated that were doing their job by advising throughout the process, wanted to call a stop the progress of STAPP. They told the tourism recovery ministers (covering tourism, finance, Maori development, and conservation) the economic context had changed so much STAPP should be stopped, or alternatives developed.

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