Dean Jacqui: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1172. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 I want to congratulate the member of Parliament Eric Roy on shepherding this local bill the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill through the House and add my voice to the view that Stewart Island is indeed unique. I spent a bit of time on Stewart Island a few years ago. It is a pretty special place. 
In the time that I was spending weeks at a time on the island there were no cruise ships. There was certainly fishing activity and it was a very busy place. The pressures that those cruise ships and the visitors have brought to Stewart Island have certainly increased over the years but the population has not significantly increased. Therein lies the problem of a small community in a highly desirable destination funding the infrastructure for that visitor presence on the island. Yes of course they get the benefit of those visitors. Tourism is a wonderful source of income as is fishing for the locals of Stewart Island but none the less a very small population and large visitor numbers over the years—which are increasing—have meant pressure on the ratepayers of Stewart Island to fund that necessary infrastructure. 
Those of us who represent small communities—I can think of perhaps the Mackenzie District Council for example which has a small static rating base and a desirable destination for visitors—come under the same sort of pressures but I have to acknowledge and agree with my colleague Eric Roy that in the case of Stewart Island this is acute. It might well be that the Chathams are under the same sorts of conditions and maybe in time they will also bring a local bill to the House for our consideration. I reckon that that probably would also enjoy support from members who understand the pressures that ratepayers have under these circumstances. 
This is a really interesting bill because it does what we would not consider doing on the mainland if you like and that is it imposes a levy on visitors. We would not do that in Ranfurly because there are many roads into Ranfurly and the cost of gathering that— 
Eric Roy 
: Hubodometers on your bike trail. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Well yes—hubodometers. My colleague is being particularly helpful with my speech and he is suggesting that hubodometers on the bike trail are an option—as indeed they are—but the point is there are many roads in and out of Ranfurly. There are many roads in and out of Oamaru of Wanaka and of any number of small visitor destinations in New Zealand but there are only a couple of ways to get to Stewart Island. You can either get to Stewart Island by boat or you can arrive on an aeroplane. I think I prefer the aeroplane. I know it is bumpy and I know you tend to wave around a bit but you can get airsick or you can get boat sick. There are two ways to get to Stewart Island and so it becomes a little bit easier to collect the levy. 
I think the provisions in the bill that describe how that levy is to be utilised are quite useful. What this bill will do is give the Southland District Council—and that is on behalf of the Stewart Island community—the legal mechanisms to receive the levy moneys and also the ability to spend the levy moneys. I think I read something around—did I read $16000? I beg you pardon; $160000 per annum is projected to be brought in from that levy. That represents about 40000 people going to Stewart Island each year. 
That $160000 will enable the local community to upgrade the sewerage system water supply and—I do not know it will be up to them obviously—maybe some walking tracks and footpaths. That is the stuff of local government and that is the stuff that this local community will be able to spend the money on. I want acknowledge that Eric Roy has been working on this issue since 1994 and if you do the maths that is quite some considerable time to consider— 
Eric Roy 
: Just after I left school. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Just after he left school in fact which has given plenty of time for the consideration of this bill by the wider community and by Parliament. I understand a number of parliamentarians have also considered this bill. 
The powers that this bill gives to the Southland District Council are that it can collect and spend the levy by establishing a subcommittee consisting of representatives from the tourism industry the community board and the district council. I am assuming that the community board refers to the Stewart Island Community Board so it will indeed be the locals together with the tourism industry who will be the people charged with spending these fees. 
 It is interesting that through the course of this bill a number of changes were made to it at the select committee and I am interested that new clause 3 was put into the bill. It clarifies that this levy would not impact on the locals. It would impact on visitors to the island so it would not impact on those fishermen who came and went from the island or indeed anybody else who had business in Invercargill. They would not be impacted so this is quite tightly focused on where the levy needs to be collected from. 
I am very pleased to stand up to speak in the third reading of the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill. I want to congratulate once again Eric Roy on doing what a good electorate MP should do and that is looking after the interests of his constituents and with that I commend the bill to the House.