Minister of Finance Grant Robertson’s Wednesday announcement that a $3 million business recovery payout was on its way to Auckland businesses affected by the weekend floods has produced mixed reactions from its intended recipients.
The owner of a boutique furniture store along The Strand, Jeremy Dunlop, told stuff.co.nz that while he did not mean to sound ungrateful, $3 million split across all affected businesses would result in the equivalent a “drop in the ocean”, considering the extent of the damage to each business and the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would take to recover each one.
Dunlop admitted that Auckland business owners would have to wait for details and see how the government intended to spread it around before passing judgment. “[But] if it’s anything like their COVID-19 payment, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.”
The payout originally announced was a $5 million package, although only $3 million was dedicated to funding business recovery. Another $1 million was for mental health support, while the final $1 million was for business advice.
Dunlop said his mental health and business concerns were not a priority while he still had to rid his boutique furniture showroom of flies and floodwaters.
“Mental health is a pretty important subject, and that’s all good, but right now we don’t really have the luxury of that,” he told stuff.co.nz. “It’s kind of hard to explain when you’re sitting here with muddy floors and flies and everyone going, ‘hey, we’re thinking of you.’ Well, that’s amazing, but I am still sitting here in the flies.”
Asked what he felt he needed most at this moment, Dunlop answered: “Right now, what I need is [for] insurance to not drag the chain. From a mental health perspective, having clarity and guidance around that is the thing that is going to help the most.”
Still finding the heart to be grateful for the payout was Sandringham dairy owner Ibrahim Ismail, who said that any sort of financial help – including whatever amount reached him from the $3 million business recovery fund – would help him save his business.
Describing the extent of devastation to his business, Ismail told stuff: “I have lost so much in the floods. We had water all over and a lot of stuff got damaged. I have two sheds full of flood damaged goods. Two rooms in this property stink so badly that we are worried about our health and well-being.”
Ismael agreed with Dunlop that the business recovery amount of the $5-million government payout was the bulk of the assistance he and his business really needed.
“I don’t think any business owner is thinking of going for a counselling service,” Ismael said. “All we need is a good financial support to continue the business.”
The dairy owner also mentioned that he did not know how he could continue his business in the long term if natural disasters of this magnitude were here to stay.
“We desperately need assistance,” he said.
Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Simon Bridges said that the $3-million business recovery payout had never been intended to cover all the work, and that the responsibility of urgently rebuilding flood-torn Auckland businesses did not fall on the shoulders of central government alone.
Bridges pointed out that insurers as well as banks had already begun to take up some of the work and lend their hand to the thousands of affected businesses, and that the $3 million recovery payment was merely a supplement to what insurance claims would cover.
Bridges expected businesses to be able to get more than half of what they needed to recover from their insurer.
“I think [the $3 million is] certainly enough for now,” Bridges was quoted as saying. “What the insurance companies and banks do is a bigger part of the picture.”
What are your thoughts on the $3 million business recovery payout and Auckland’s reactions? Let us know in the comments below.
