Government measures in key jurisdictions 4th edition - Flipbook - Page 90
New Zealand
Businesses may only receive one COVID-19 subsidy at any one time per employee.
Immigration New Zealand has also made changes to the application of the Immigration Act 2009 to provide
comfort to Temporary Visa Holders:
• Visitor, student or work visa holders whose visas have expired must leave the country or make a request
for a special temporary or resident visa.
• Visitor, student or work visa holders with an expiry date of 2 April to 9 July 2020 and who were in New
Zealand on 2 April 2020 had their visas automatically extended to 25 September 2020.
• Employer-assisted temporary work visas due to expire before 31 December 2020 (including those which
were extended to 25 September) may apply to have those visas extended for a further 6 months.
Conditions on a work visa may also be varied to allow a visa-holder to change the employer, occupation,
or location conditions. Emergency benefits may also be granted to people who need assistance but would
not otherwise qualify for them, including temporary visa holders. More details about the changes for visas
are available here.
Since the end of the COVID-19 Alert Level Four lockdown, the New Zealand Government
has been encouraging the rebuilding of various industries. Part of this has included an Immigration
Border Exemption to allow critical workers an exemption to the border closure.
There are various criteria depending on whether the role is short term or long term. To date it has been
used to bring to New Zealand key workers for major infrastructure projects, and also workers on projects
which aim to boost the New Zealand economy, such as film and television projects and the America’s Cup.
Details about the border exemptions are available here.
Insolvency
The Government has made two key legislative changes to the Companies Act to prevent solvent businesses
facing temporary financial distress from being prematurely placed into liquidation.
Has the
government made
any changes
to insolvency
legislation?
The first is the Business Debt Hibernation regime, which provides businesses with an option to place
existing debts on hold until they can start trading normally again, subject to creditor agreement. This
prevents creditors from taking legal action against the company to recover their debt for a period of six
months.
Applications to use the Business Debt Hibernation scheme can be made until 24 December 2020. The
temporary COVID-19 Business Debt Hibernation provisions are scheduled to be repealed on 31 May 2022.
The second change is the Safe Harbour regime, which provides directors with security against a legal
claim for failing to meet their insolvency duties under the Companies Act as a direct result of the impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the safe harbour regime, if a director is accused of:
•
•
reckless trading, either by agreeing to the business of the company being carried on in any manner, or
causing or allowing the business of the company to be carried on in any manner, which is likely to create
a substantial risk of serious loss to the company's creditors; or
incurring an obligation while being of the opinion that the company has, or in the next six months is
likely to have, significant liquidity problems;
Government measures in key jurisdictions
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