Dean JacquiIn CommitteePart 1 Amendments to preliminary provisionsHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): I have several questions for the Minister of Local Government on aspects of this bill. I return to the regulatory impact statement (RIS) and I'm on Section B: Summary Impacts: Benefits and costs" noting that "No specific decisions have been made on where [the tourist tax revenue] will be spent." In the RIS "It is envisaged that $80 million of revenue will be used to support conservation and enhance tourism infrastructure."Question number one to the Minister of Local Government is: does she anticipate that half of that $80 million revenue will in fact go to the local government agencies responsible for most tourism infrastructure? The question matters because while the $80 million revenue is in the RIS it's just a projection. What we do know about the New Zealand economy is that it is slowing and that it is slowing fairly quickly. Part of that slow-down of course is an adjustment in tourism numbers. The Minister of Tourism at some point no doubt will make the point that tourism numbers are still growing and that is true but what is also true is that tourism numbers—the growth is slowing.So for a sustainable funding model—which this purports to be—I'd like the Minister of Local Government to answer the question. Given that the roughly half—but we don't know because it doesn't specify in the legislation. There are after all only four pages to this bill and one of them is blank. It is only estimated that $40000—sorry $80000—Hon Scott Simpson: No million dollars.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Sorry $80 million. Gosh it must be 10.35 p.m. right? Apologies to the committee.So roughly half of $80 million and sinking will go to local government. How will that be distributed?CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Can I just check with the member—sorry to do this—are you speaking on Part 1 or Part 2?Hon JACQUI DEAN: Yes yes very closely. Thank you.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): OK thank you. I'm just struggling to—yeah I just want to bring you back to that.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Thank you. And I will zero in even closer to Part 1 because I think that would be useful.Perhaps a bit of context for the Chairperson might be useful. I'm referring to Part 1 clause 5(2)(a) around the definition of Minister. And while I was talking about the amount of the tourism fund it is integral to the discussion. But I'm very interested to know in the provision (2)(a) "in relation to provision of or made under this Act (or to such a provision for particular purposes)" which Minister is being referred to here? Is it none of them? Is it all of them? Is it any portfolio Minister who has an interest such as the Minister for Local Government? I am interested in her views in the course of this committee of the whole House.Is it the local government Minister because she will be concerned and interested to know how much revenue she may get from this tourist tax? Or is it the Minister of Conservation because the Minister will be very concerned with how she is going to spend a portion of this tourist tax on the crisis in threatened species. Or is it the Minister of Immigration? I don't know. The bill doesn't specify and yet this committee needs an answer in the absence of a select committee process.So does the Minister of Immigration plan to be one of those Ministers who may have an interest in the tourist tax for the provision of a particular purpose and what might that be? Well it could be a lot of things. It could be addressing the issues of exemptions—whether it's a class exemption or whether it's an exemption for a particular person. Is some of this projected $80 million going to be used by the immigration Minister in the administration of this tourist levy? Therefore is the Minister of Local Government and the Minister of Conservation and of course the Minister of Tourism—are their allocations going to be impacted by that?I think we need to know. The visitors need to know who are coming from South Korea paying $35 at the border plus an extra $7 for an electronic travel authority if they organise that from their phone and $9 if they do it from their PC. Those tourists really need to know whether or not this tourist tax is going to be used by the Minister of Immigration to administer aspects of this tourist tax. And if that is so how is the Minister of Immigration going to account for that? How is the Minister of Immigration going to come before the Estimates examination in the next financial year and account for that amount of funding from the tourism levy arguably being diverted into matters such as considering individual exemptions from the tourist levy? Thank you Madam Chair."