Clendon David: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Clendon David: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:677;Page:722] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a short call on the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill. I also have had one trip to Rakiura which of course was once called the South Island; the larger land mass to the north was the Middle Island. It was a memorable visit. The arrival was memorable. It was a very lumpy journey on Foveaux Strait and I arrived there feeling quite green—but not in a political sense—to the extent that I chose to fly back to the South Island after the journey. It is a remarkable place— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: You felt like we feel sometimes—green. 
DAVID CLENDON 
: Indeed yes. You are getting there Trev.  
As Stewart Island / Rakiura is unique this bill is unique. It is interesting of course that it takes an Act of Parliament in order to impose a quite modest levy. Of course the structure of the bill allows for that levy to be amended appropriately over time and that is as it should be. A number of speakers have identified the fact that the situation is not unique however. There are other remote parts of this country that are equally underfunded in terms of requiring significant visitor loads but there is not a great deal of money there to create infrastructure to support them. That is a point I would like to return to briefly.  
I am pleased that this bill is well endowed with caveats to make it very clear that this is not to be deemed a precedent because I think we do have to acknowledge that levies are problematic and that we need to be fairly light-handed in the way in which we use them. I think that this bill achieves that fairly well. The language of the bill as other speakers have commented also is clearly well-thought-out.  
The Local Government and Environment Committee has done its job. The definitions around visitors make sure that you do not get regular commuters or locals into the net; it would be entirely counter-productive to start clipping the ticket of people who live on and commute routinely and often to the island. Again it is clearly a job well done by the select committee and again we are very happy to support the bill’s progress through this House.  
As I said levies however are problematic. I would just like to reflect momentarily if I may. All of us I dare say have had the experience for example of flying out of some of our provincial airports here in New Zealand. Typically one is welcomed with open arms into the airport then you discover you must pay a fee to leave and that has annoyed people on occasion. But again it is an apparently legitimate means of funding infrastructure that otherwise local provinces would struggle to fund.  
In a sense Rakiura is New Zealand in microcosm. We consider Rakiura a remote place. The Hokianga parts of the West Coast—these to us are remote. To the rest of the world actually New Zealand is quite remote. And I know for example the Tourism Industry Association is concerned as it rightfully should be about the likelihood of parts of Europe and the UK for example imposing levies effectively on people departing for long-haul flights to destinations like New Zealand. That is a problem for us and clearly it is one that we have to think seriously about and do wonder at the appropriateness of levies.  
Having said that I think we do need to look at the funding of our extraordinarily valuable conservation estate of our environment generally. Again like most of us we will have travelled internationally. I think my first experience in fact was in Tasmania when I entered a national park and in order to do that I had to pay a fee as we entered the park. That was a surprise to me but I felt no resentment; it was a stunningly beautiful place. Again it was quite remote and I think that is something that we do need to give some thought to in New Zealand. This is not Green Party policy; I am simply reflecting here about the appropriateness of levies to fund the Department of Conservation and environmental protection in New Zealand.  
Clearly the issue is simple enough to conceptualise. We know from some economic research that there is a willingness amongst people to pay to enter some of our conservation estate. But how does one collect? Where does one clip the ticket? There are practical transactional issues to generalise if you like around the practice of this bill of applying levies in order to protect the qualities that people are going to a place to enjoy. 
So with those few thoughts—and as I say it is not Green policy—I do think there is a conversation to be had about applying levies more generally. Thank you.