Davis Kelvin: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:664;Page:11773] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 As my colleague David Parker said Labour supports the referral of the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill to the Local Government and Environment Committee with some reservations. I stand here to speak in my capacity as Labour’s tourism spokesperson. David Parker was correct when he said that we need to look after the tourism industry because it is our second-biggest export earner. One in 10 New Zealanders derives an income from tourism and $50 million a day is spent on tourism in New Zealand so it is really important that we look after the tourism industry. 
I can see both sides of this argument. It is really important that tourists who go to Stewart Island have access to the facilities the amenities and the infrastructure to provide them with a good experience and also that Stewart Island can cope with the numbers. Every year 30000 to 40000 tourists arrive there and that is a huge burden for the Stewart Island infrastructure to cope with. In particular I refer to public amenities such as toilets. I come from a part of the country where the local infrastructure facilities such as the sewerage system did not cope and that led to overflow into rivers. 
That had a downstream effect on a number of oyster farms. We cannot have that sort of problem happening in Stewart Island with effluent going into the sea and perhaps damaging the oyster industry around the bottom of the South Island. I see the need to invest in the infrastructure and the amenities of Stewart Island. 
I have spoken to a number of people who work in the tourism industry or have accommodation businesses in Stewart Island. They said that they do not believe a levy of $5 will have an impact on the number of tourists going to Stewart Island. On the other hand my concern is the cumulative effect of other areas of the country that might also want to set levies. We heard about the Chatham Islands which have some sort of arrangement. But if Waiheke Island Great Barrier Island and say Queenstown and the Milford Sound also decide to set levies the cumulative effect may have an impact on people sitting at their computers on the other side of the world who are making decisions about whether to come to New Zealand for a holiday. If those people see there are all those added costs it may affect their decision to travel to New Zealand. As I have said we need to make sure we protect the tourism industry in New Zealand in general. I spoke today to members of inbound tour operator groups. Their main concern was that if a precedent with these levies is set it may increase the cost of holidays to New Zealand. 
I go back to the number of tourists going to Stewart Island. Eric Roy said there are 36000. Of those about 60 percent are international tourists. We cannot have international tourists turning up to substandard facilities. They come here with an expectation of nice public facilities good accommodation and nice walking tracks. We need to make sure that the reality matches the expectations of those international tourists. It is appropriate that this bill goes to select committee so we can discuss all the issues around it. It is really important as we do not have the regulatory impact statement that we would normally have and we do not have input from the various ministries that David Parker talked about such as the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Economic Development. It is important that we have all that information and that we have a big discussion. It is important that Stewart Island has the amenities it needs to cater for its tourists. It is important that we cater for the wider New Zealand tourism scene so it is important that we have those conversations at the select committee. We support this bill being referred to the select committee and the committee having those discussions. Thank you.