King Annette: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Annette: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1171. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai) 
: 
 This House does join with Eric Roy in sending our condolences to the families of those who lost their life on the  
Easy Rider 
 last week. I thank the member for raising that matter today. 
I want to start off by congratulating Eric Roy on bringing the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill to the House. I think he shows what a good local representative can do. In fact I think he probably should be the next Minister that comes into Cabinet following the resignation of Nick Smith today. Eric Roy has the experience and he has the integrity to make a very good Minister and perhaps he will get that opportunity. But he is well known for supporting local activities. Some members come into this House wanting the title. Others come in to work hard in their electorate and I just want to say that Eric Roy is one of those. 
But I do take exception to one thing that he said. He said this bill is very unique for a unique part of New Zealand. I am sure he has not forgotten that I represent a very unique island group in New Zealand—the Chatham Islands. I have been the member there for 16 years. The Chatham Islands are an island group that has fewer people on it than they do down on Stewart Island and they have very similar issues to the people of Stewart Island. You see people have discovered the Chathams and increasingly people are travelling there to visit them. They also have the same problem of a very low rating base and very little ability to raise funds as a local authority. They have a high cost for electricity very poor roading a high cost for shipping and so on. 
So when we look at this bill Mr Roy I am saying that it is not unique. It is a bill that could be applied to other parts of New Zealand particularly when they face the issue of raising enough money to invest in infrastructure. I think that is going to become a whole lot harder under the local government reforms that we have just had announced by the Minister a couple of days ago because with capped rates in areas like the Chathams and small local authority areas like the West Coast and others the ability to raise additional revenue is going to be very difficult indeed. Therefore such local authorities will be unable to invest into much-needed infrastructure. The idea of a levy is one that has been thought of by Southland District Council—good on them. But I would say to the Government that maybe it is time to listen to the former Minister of Tourism the member for West Coast - Tasman Damien O’Connor who raised in his second reading speech that if we are prepared to put a levy or a tax on for Stewart Island why do we not consider a levy or a tax on all visitors coming to New Zealand that would then be shared among councils around New Zealand particularly those with low rating bases that are unable to raise enough revenue to put into the infrastructure that they need? 
Having said that Labour supports this bill. We had some concerns about it when it went to the Local Government and Environment Committee but most of those concerns were actually ironed out with a very good select committee process. Now after a lot of frustration particularly from the Mayor of Southland District Frana Cardno who when I read newspaper reports got quite irate about the delay in terms of getting this levy through and the long process of it happening I know that it is going to be welcomed by the people of Southland. I am certainly going to take up the member’s offer just to mention his name when I go over to visit Stewart Island. You see Stewart Island like lots of small places in New Zealand is a popular tourist destination. I think the member said 19 cruise ships and something like 40000 visitors arrive down in Stewart Island. I read somewhere that one small outlet on the island served 400 cups of coffee in just 4 hours. Now that might not sound like much but when you have a very small rating base and very small-business people then it is difficult for them to be able to provide everything that might be needed for tourists coming on to the island without additional help from a levy such as this. 
We support this bill. I am pleased it is happening for the member but let us not forget the other communities around New Zealand that have growing numbers of tourists low rating bases and an inability to raise the capital for a lot of infrastructure that would in fact bring even more jobs and opportunities to their area. I would hope that Eric Roy will now take up the challenge of talking to his Cabinet colleagues and saying what about a visitor levy from those who come into New Zealand that could be shared across those councils that are providing very good services in their local areas?