Mitchell Mark: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mitchell Mark: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1178. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure that I also get to speak to the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill. Like everyone else I would like to pay tribute to my colleague Eric Roy. As a new member of the House I can say he has certainly demonstrated to me that determination and perseverance can definitely achieve results in this House. 
I am embarrassed to say that I have not actually visited Stewart Island myself but of course I have heard many many stories of the whitetail the paua and the seafood that come from Stewart Island. Another thing that I can really identify with is the fact that many of the residents there are direct descendants of the whalers and early Rakiura Maori with combined family histories reaching back almost 200 years. Some of the houses built by the early Norwegian whalers are still lived in today and their distinctive alpine architecture somehow is no longer out of place in the roaring forties of the Southern Ocean. The reason why I can identify with this is that I have a community in my own electorate at Puhoi which was first settled by the Bohemians and we still have some of the original families there. The culture and the spirit of the place can really be captured only when you have original settlers in a town like that. So I really can identify with the spirit that is being captured on Stewart Island. 
The other thing I would like to mention is the fact that there is consensus in the House and support in the House for this bill. But there is one member whom I would like to mention who has really put himself on the line in terms of support for Stewart Island and that is the Hon David Parker. While down on Stewart Island—and I note that my colleague Eric Roy was talking about the challenges associated with roading aggregate getting metals to the island and obviously having to pass over one of our most difficult stretches of water in the country—Mr Parker was helping with some roading and some infrastructure. Unfortunately he got caught on the wrong end of a tar truck and was covered in tar but luckily it was cold mix tar and not hot mix tar. 
I think that one of the big issues for Stewart Island and its future survival is going to be based around tourism because unfortunately some of its business has declined over the years. As Mr Roy mentioned 17 cruise ships arrived last year and this business is going to continue to grow hopefully in the future. But I think that in relation to tourism the fact is that we are competing globally. There is definitely competition out there. When tourists are coming down to our beautiful part of the world they are looking for a good experience—and they get a good experience. However part of that is being able to provide world-class infrastructure and facilities for them. I think it is very clear that because of the small population on Stewart Island it was too big a burden for a small population like that to be able to keep investing in infrastructure that was experiencing such a large amount of tourist traffic that is growing on the island. I think that it is not only important to preserve our environment which obviously is critical but it is also very very important to be able to continue to invest in our infrastructure and to provide world-class facilities. 
Like Mr Williams mentioned on the face of it $160000 annually may not appear much on the surface but in actual fact to a small population a small island like Stewart Island that is actually a significant amount of investment going into their infrastructure each year and will allow them to maintain that infrastructure for future growth and future growth in their tourist industry. Finally I just want to say that again I commend Mr Roy for shepherding this bill through the House. I want to commend this bill to the House. Thank you.