Keith Azopardi's Statement On COVID-19
Below follows the Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi's statement on COVID-19:
Over the last 80 days we have all had to put up with restrictions on our freedoms, a lockdown, not being able to see friends or family or to go out. We’ve seen constraints on our ability to travel or to cross the border.
But what we have not seen is fatalities and that has largely been because of the discipline and respect with which the vast majority of you have viewed the lockdown rules. There is still a need for some self-restraint in days and weeks to come despite the onset of warmer weather and the natural desire to enjoy time out.
During the last two and a half months we’ve been working closely with the Government on issues relating to the pandemic so that we could, jointly, get Gibraltar through this. That has been our basic approach. Who could have imagined when we turned the corner of the year and our eyes were set on BREXIT that there would be an even larger challenge ahead. And that this would be a challenge that was not just local or regional or even European. It would be global.
I made clear after the last election that as Leader of the Opposition the style I would adopt would be positive and constructive while at the same time robust and critical where necessary. This is not new because I have, for 30 years, believed in a positive style of politics that seeks, where possible, avenues of engagement and consensus so that we can achieve better outcomes for people. What else is politics about except finding solutions for people? In keeping with that philosophy, I made clear that if there were issues on which we thought we should work together in the public interest, we would.
So when this grave global pandemic happened and after my initial conversation with the Chief Minister on 13 March we worked together to ensure Gibraltar had the best outcome possible.
The measures that were taken after then changed the way we lived our lives. My colleagues and I had no doubt that these were necessary to ensure we quickly bought the health service time to get ready for a much wider deeper tide of COVID patients. The projections of hospitalisations or victims to COVID were such that we had no doubt in answering the call to help.
Our cooperation with Government at this critical time was to tackle the serious public health emergency and to save lives. This was essential and in the public interest. Because everyone has a brother, a sister, a mother or a daughter that could be affected.
But cooperation has not meant we have set aside our duties as the Opposition. We have been strongly challenging policies and putting across our own ideas, asking probing questions, seeking information and testing plans. Where necessary we have voiced concerns publicly. We have always kept in mind our role as your Opposition and the constitutional watchdog of the Government. We have not agreed on everything and have said so. But together we have
been able to ensure Gibraltar was in a better place to respond to this crisis. We will continue to fulfil this role if this is needed to help Gibraltar through this crisis.
As a community we have done very well, so far, and much credit and our thanks go to the essential services and front-line workers who have stepped up to work hard in the preparatory stages of this crisis. But we must remain cautious as we try to emerge into some form of new normality.
As individual and commercial freedoms are restored we all have a role to play in making sure we continue travelling in a positive direction and it is not necessary to re-introduce controls. That will only be possible if we exercise restraint and show our strong sense of civic responsibility. It is hard to go to the beach for a short while but at present the public health advice is there for a reason. If we do well then we will be able to go to the beach as long as we want soon enough, the restaurants will open again and we will have a further degree of desired normality. This would also allow the proportionality or timescale of measures to be kept under active review. If we do not do well in controlling new active cases then all these things will be delayed.
The navigation of the economic consequences of the pandemic will be as difficult as the public health emergency. The global effects of the economic paralysis will be long-lasting and bring a reduction in spending and the possibility of an economic depression in its wake. Governments worldwide will seek to borrow to first fund the initial stabilization of the economy and then jump-start it. There will be a major dent into public revenue as the economy contracts and partly freezes for a period.
It is inevitable that there will be some borrowing here in Gibraltar too. But this does not mean that we should simply mindlessly borrow ourselves out of the crisis leaving future generations with a chain of debt around their necks. We should be careful and only borrow what is absolutely necessary. In managing the economy we must also be prudent with the use of public monies and reduce wastage of public monies. If not we will simply make a bad situation worse.
We have so far supported the emergency budget on 20 March and the BEAT measures introduced to stabilize the job market and help the business sector. We may also support other economic measures in future on a case by case basis.
But in supporting these we have not abandoned our traditional criticism of where we were economically when this crisis started and that if we had been in a better place we would also have been able to weather the storm more easily. That is a debate for the future.
As we move forward we must intelligently energise our economy. The initial BEAT package runs to 30 June at which point there is a need for a critical look at the kind of targeted assistance that will deliver the best economic recharge and the most value for money. Some traditional pillars of the economy will remain damaged for a while. Tourism in the levels we had seen over the last few years will not return immediately.
Additionally the need to find and agree a new permanent relationship with the European Union or to agree a free flow at the frontier has not gone away. The transitional period currently expires this December and we would hope there will realistically be an extension of time to negotiate the best deal possible.
The last 80 days has made many people worldwide reflect on the way we have lived our lives. As we emerge we need to remember that and draw some positives. How can we improve how we live, how we are governed, what we want for our future, what is important and valuable in life. There is a danger we will quickly slip into old habits. But if we keep these reflections in mind there is an opportunity for a new radicalism that improves our environment, our quality of life, the way we run our public services, how we are governed and how we behave towards one another within a global society.
There is an opportunity for transformative policies that can have a lasting positive effect on our society. But these must be well-thought through and properly planned. In the same way as there is an opportunity of doing things better what should not happen is the loading of all manner of ill-considered ideas onto a COVID bandwagon selling these to people as measures either made necessary by COVID or that should be done under the guise of improvements.
Over the last three months Gibraltar has had to concentrate on this crisis which I am sure you all understand. But we haven’t forgotten other domestic issues. These need tackling and haven’t gone away whether it be in health, housing, transport, social services or the environment.
As we emerge from this crisis we will continue to work hard for you on all these issues to make Gibraltar a safer, better place to live, with secure jobs, quality of life and a cleaner environment. With a secure future for you and your families.
