Williams Andrew: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Williams Andrew: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:677;Page:715] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to support the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill and I am very proud to be doing so particularly as the name Stewart is part of my family’s heritage. As some of you who were here in the Chamber and heard my maiden speech 2 weeks ago will recall my mother’s maiden name is Stewart. The Stewarts were from Wyndham in Southland so in a sense this is almost like bringing the money home to the family. I am sure part of the Scottish heritage would love to be getting part of the levy that is being paid.  
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Might be related. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: I am sure I am related. I am sure there is a plot of land somewhere there on Stewart Island that our family has and I will certainly be going there one day to look up that plot of land.  
However I would like to congratulate the member of Parliament from Invercargill Eric Roy on bringing this bill through the House and through the select committee process. He is to be congratulated. This has been a long time in the coming. And before the honourable member Chris Auchinvole leaves I say also to you Chris as chairman of the Local Government and Environment Committee well done on following this through and it is a great achievement.  
Can I also particularly congratulate parties on the cross-party agreement on this. I think all of the parties have worked very well to bring this through and it has been very much a non-political cross-party agreement. New Zealand First as most of you know was not in Parliament in the last 3 years in case you had not noticed. We are back and I am one of the members who can safely say that we would have certainly been supporting this bill had we been on the select committee at the time.  
Can I also congratulate the Stewart Island Community Board and also the Southland District Council. This is a great achievement on their part and it is a milestone in local government. We have heard recently from the Government benches how the Government would like to see reviews in local government. It says that local government is charging too much for rates and charging too much for its services.  
Here is a classic example of a local authority—the Southland District Council and its local community board the Stewart Island Community Board—standing up for themselves and saying: “We cannot put this all on the ratepayers. We cannot charge this all to the ratepayers.” The ratepayers when there are only something like 400 residents cannot afford to provide all this infrastructure. And well done to them for standing up on behalf of local government and saying: “We need to find some other means of charging for this infrastructure growth.”  
In 2007-08 there were something like 32000 visitors to Stewart Island and by 2010 that had risen to 40000 people per year including those 19 cruise ships this season. That is quite a large growth when you have only 400 local residents. This is a huge drain on them.  
I am informed that for instance at least half of the people on a daily basis who are in Oban and around that area are simply pedestrians and tourists walking around the area. In many respects they have very limited footpaths and most of the people end up walking on the roads themselves because of the lack of footpaths. They have a lack of public toilets the sewerage system is inadequate the walking tracks and the jetties need upgrades to sustain the number of people visiting the island and quite frankly it is a difficult situation when you are in that predicament of so few people trying to cover such a great cost.  
And this is very important for New Zealand’s tourism. Stewart Island is one of the jewels in the crown of this great country New Zealand Aotearoa and it is wonderful that we are looking to Stewart Island as one of our future significant tourist places. The national park there which was founded in 2000 and opened in 2002 with 157000 hectares the Rakiura National Park covers about 85 percent of Stewart Island / Rakiura. Again that is an amazing place when such a large percentage of the landmass of Stewart Island is covered by national park. Having a national park like that of course brings added pressures to a small community the likes of Oban and the likes of Stewart Island.  
It is only an hour by ferry and 15 minutes by air to get to Stewart Island. It is so close and yet it is really one of our remote jewels of the New Zealand tourist trail. They have only 12.8 kilometres of sealed roads on Stewart Island and 8.3 kilometres of narrow gravel roads so there is not a lot of roading infrastructure and there is no reticulated public water supply. Again these funds will assist them in the future to provide for some of those infrastructure assets.  
There are only 250 occupied dwellings on Stewart Island and as a result the people there—I think for many many years quite rightly and this goes right back to the 1970s—have been asking for this support. I think it is incredible that it has taken this long. We have heard that it has gone through many many members of Parliament over the years it has gone through a number of councils and it has gone through many many processes.  
It is a little bit of a tragedy and perhaps something we need to reflect on that here there has been a community a very small community in New Zealand that has been struggling and has put out its hand for assistance and quite frankly we the lawmakers and we the Parliament perhaps have ignored this for too long. I hope this is not mirrored in other communities in New Zealand. I certainly would like to think that other communities who are under stress who are having difficulties with providing for their communities having seen this example might look to the same situation to get relief in their situation.  
This does get back to the comment I made at the beginning of my speech about local government. I honestly do believe as a former mayor of the fourth-biggest city in this country that this National Government and indeed other Governments in the past have often underestimated what local government does provide in the way of infrastructure in this country. They underestimate what the local councils the district councils and the regional councils do provide in this country and it is very very important.  
It reflects on the likes of our tourism. You have to remember that our tourists do not come just to Auckland. They do not come just to Wellington. They do not come just to Christchurch. They go all over New Zealand and many many many hundreds of thousands of our tourists go to very very small communities in our country and they require public toilets they require walking tracks they require parks and they require the infrastructure that is needed for them to have an enjoyable stay in this country. I certainly hope that this is respected by this Government to reflect on the fact that local government provides much of this infrastructure and much of that does fall back on the individual ratepayers and the ratepayers who are funding those councils to provide that infrastructure.  
Can I also say in closing that I am very pleased that this was the result of very good community consultation. I note that in 2009 there were something like 129 respondents to the 485 flyers that were distributed on Stewart Island and of the 129 who replied 119 were in support of this levy. So it has very strong local support. It also means as a result of this levy that instead of the ratepayers having an increase in their rates of something like $353 per year to try to cover the $160000 that they estimate would be generated on an annual basis from this levy the levy will assist them by providing that $160000-plus towards those necessary footpaths tracks public toilets water infrastructure and other things.  
So in closing New Zealand First is very supportive of this. This is an initiative of the local community and New Zealand First always favours local initiatives. If a local community deems something to be appropriate and fit and when you have resounding support from the local community we certainly believe it is very very appropriate. We very very strongly support this and we commend this to the House.