Dean Jacqui: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Dean Jacqui: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:677;Page:720] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 It is difficult is it not when a member gets up and contends that the principles that we are discussing in this bill the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill should apply to the whole country? It makes me think about the communities in my electorate.  
I can think immediately of the constraints that the local authorities have in the Mackenzie Country. It would love to be a major tourism destination—and in fact is—but the authorities would like to provide more services. So there is the Mackenzie District Council and then there is the Waimate District Council which also would like to provide amenities for visitors. Again it is a small local authority with a small rating base and a large number of visitors. Then there is the Waitaki District Council which also has a small rating base. It has a large amount of coastline it goes up the Waitaki Valley and there are all the attractions up there. It too is struggling to provide facilities.  
But we are not the Government that gives out willy-nilly because we understand on this side of the House that we actually have a few economic constraints that we need to take account of. The big difference with Rakiura is the fact that you have to get there by water or air depending on the day and that there is a population of something like 460. It swells over the tourism season thank goodness for them because they do get a benefit from that. But this is a special case. They have argued that it is a special case. Parliament agrees that it is a special case and that is why Parliament is now considering the implications of a visitor levy.  
I have to congratulate the former select committee on the care that it has taken over this issue in defining what a “visitor” is: it is somebody who goes to the island and not from the island it is not to be somebody who works on the island and it is not to be people who live on the island. That is all very carefully crafted. So I think the detail in the bill is good and the principle is good. Stewart Island since—what—1994 has been looking for this solution to fund its infrastructure and it is quite good that its member Eric Roy is here in the House to champion its cause as he has done the whole time.  
But I just want to come back to the point that the previous member the Hon Damien O’Connor made. He never actually has been to Stewart Island so it is interesting that he can speak so strongly never actually having been there. He said that those principles should apply to the whole country but actually no they should not. We need to have a look at Stewart Island on its own and have a look at this case on its merits by way of a local bill. That is what we do in this Parliament and I am very pleased that we have the ability to do that in this Parliament.  
If other communities wish to do that they also can explore the vehicle of using a local bill to promote their own causes but I do not agree with—and I do not think we should go down this road—having a look at the principle of this applying to other communities. Simply where do you draw the line? I do not believe you can whereas with Rakiura I think in this instance they have argued their case it has been considered by Parliament and this will go through the Committee process. I congratulate the Local Government and Environment Committee on a job well done and I commend the bill to the House.