Longer lockdowns, a $30 billion six-month wage subsidy, rationing food, closing supermarkets and pharmacies, and forcing companies to stop exporting goods overseas were all considered as part of the Government’s “worst-case scenario” Covid response, released to Stuff under the Official Information Act and revealed here for the first time. * Protecting lives and livelihoods: Data on why New Zealand should relax strict Covid-19 lockdown next weekCalled the “All-of-Government paper on Managed Economy”, it laid out what it called the “worst-case scenario”. The worst-case scenarioThis worst-case scenario envisaged disruption to supply chains, meaning essential businesses wouldn’t have enough goods to sell. On April 9, one day after the first set of economic scenarios were delivered, Robertson was given a Treasury paper that looked at what to do next with the wage subsidy. “Following the lifting of level 4, level 3 restrictions remain in place for the following six months.

Source: Stuff March 03, 2021 16:00 UTC