Calder Cam: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Calder Cam: Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:677;Page:707] 
Dr CAM CALDER (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise. I acknowledge the contribution from a fellow member of the Local Government and Environment Committee from last year Phil Twyford. I must acknowledge also the excellent chairmanship of the then chairman Chris Auchinvole. It was a very collegial committee and this bill the Southland District Council (Stewart Island/Rakiura Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill was given significant consideration and debate for reasons that many speakers have brought out.  
I have to confess a family link with the small Stewart Island community. An aunt of mine Esther Paton I am led to believe did actually run the small hotel in Oban many many years ago.  
Todd McClay 
: Have you visited? 
Dr CAM CALDER 
: I have visited Stewart Island. There are a couple of small churches some excellent shops some tourist organisations and a visitor centre and I think the community centre which contains the library was actually developed by the hard work of the local community which we have heard is only around about 400 people. Opinions differ as to exactly how many ratepayers there are because of course there are people who have holiday homes there but there is a small—very very small—number of ratepayers in the rating base.  
It is tiny compared with say North Shore City. I see the ex-Mayor of North Shore City sitting over there. 
Andrew Williams 
: 250000 people.  
Dr CAM CALDER 
: Thank you very much—250000 people—but I think on Stewart Island it is a mere 400 or less according to the information I have.  
Simon Bridges 
: There’d be more visitors than that. 
Dr CAM CALDER 
: And how many people visit Stewart Island? Well we heard from Eric Roy—and I must take this opportunity to compliment Mr Roy. He is a bit of a Renaissance man and I have had the pleasure of going fishing with him. I caught my first wild trout in the Joes River with Eric Roy some years ago.  
He is also Deputy Speaker in the House as we know and of course for many years—since 1994—as the excellent MP he is he has pushed away on behalf of his local community on behalf of the people of Stewart Island and on behalf of those small number of people who live in a small paradise it has to be said. They do not live in “Taradise”—Taranaki—they live in Stewart Island in Rakiura which is another paradise.  
We are blessed in this country with many many beautiful parts of the world. 
Simon Bridges 
: Tauranga. 
Dr CAM CALDER 
: I hear Tauranga has been put forward by my colleague on my left. Stewart Island however we know is special. It is special—very special.  
As a student at Otago University one of the joys I had was at Easter when we would go regularly on an Easter tramp so to speak and one year it was to Stewart Island. We got off the ferry after a reasonably smooth crossing much to our delight at Halfmoon Bay and we tramped through to North Arm Hut. I am not sure whether North Arm Hut is still there. I am hoping to go down with the member for Invercargill at some time in the future and ascertain that for myself. It was set about 10 feet above a beautiful little estuary.  
Above the fireplace on the lintel were written the words “Peace and tranquillity are here.”—“Peace and tranquillity are here.”—and that in fact— 
Simon Bridges 
: That’s a bit new-age. 
Dr CAM CALDER 
: The member for Tauranga says it is new-age. Well in fact this was a few years ago. That word had not been invented at that stage Simon but there we are. It was indeed true however. “Peace and tranquillity are here.” and that really reflects the “mori” if I may use that term the spirit of Stewart Island. 
Hon Members 
: Mauri. 
Dr CAM CALDER 
: “Mowri”—is it “mowri”?  
Hon Members 
: “Mau”. 
Dr CAM CALDER 
: Well we need to go through this at some stage. Thank you for the contribution from across the House. I should have just used the word “spirit” obviously. 
It does reflect the spirit of the island and that is why 40000 visitors—40000 visitors—are drawn to that particular piece of our New Zealand paradise. They come by ferry they come by plane and they come as we have heard from the member for Invercargill by cruise liners. I think 19—19—are due in this cruise season and that will only increase with the attractiveness of New Zealand to tourists from all over the world.  
Obviously there is a small rating base of around 400 including those who have holiday homes. It is asking a huge amount of these people many of whom are permanent residents. Some of course have links with the island through long-term family links and maintain a holiday home there. It is only reasonable we thought as a committee—and it was a collegial discussion on this and I acknowledge the cooperation from all sides of the House including the previous speaker Mr Twyford—to basically dramatically reduce that rating burden on those residents there.  
Just as a point it is a beautiful place. We have people who are interested in kayaking people who are fisherman and people who come to get the white-tailed deer. Tramping on the way to North Arm Hut we did catch a glimpse of one. This was when I was a student. I did a little bit of work as a student but at Easter we took off.  
I must say in a rush of enthusiasm we decided to go from North Arm Hut to Mason Bay and back in a day. I have to say that was a bit of a trek. It was a bit of a trek but we came back in a day. It was my first experience of “sahib’s knee” which at a later date I was to find recurring in the Himalayas. But I do digress slightly.  
This is a wonderful bill. There is a cost to the community of their providing these essential services. We heard from the previous speaker of the effect of serving 400 cups of coffee to cruise ship visitors. There is a cost to the community for these essentials and the infrastructure. There are not many roads there and that is a lot of its attraction. There are not a lot of roads but there are other essential services that need to be maintained and the cost to the community will be dramatically reduced if this visitor levy goes through which I am sure it will with the support that we have seen in the House today.  
To administer the levy the bill provides for the Southland District Council to establish a subcommittee and this subcommittee will consist of representatives from the tourism industry the community board and the district council. At this stage we do not know what the amount of the levy will be but as we have heard at this stage $5 is likely to be the figure. The bill also establishes the governance and administrative arrangements for the levy including the process for setting and regularly reviewing the same.  
There will be opportunity to debate this excellent bill in the future. I will commend the bill to the House.