Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Tourism): That's a pretty ordinary contribution from an ordinary member of Parliament Todd McClay and he probably exemplifies the reason that they're in Opposition—totally irrelevant.Just to respond to a couple of his points first of all he spoke about the Tourism Infrastructure Fund—$25 million every year for four years. That highlights the reason why we need to have a long-term sustainable funding mechanism for tourism. We've used that $25 million very wisely. The trouble is that after four years it ends. It's not sustainable.Hon Scott Simpson: You haven't used it.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The member says we haven't used it. Well to be honest one thing that previous Government did really well was they marketed out New Zealand as a destination extremely well. But that there is the problem: they didn't do anything to manage the destination and instead we're now having to deal with all the problems that they left behind because of their mismanagement of the tourism sector.He says that we haven't listened. Well we had quite a comprehensive consultation process around the visitor levy. We spoke to local government we spoke to businesses in the tourism sector we spoke to communities and we spoke to the regions. They have said that they want this levy because they know that there was no guarantee under the previous Government that there would be sustainable and consistent funding mechanisms.So we're proud to stand here in support of the Immigration (International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy) Amendment Bill. I do want to acknowledge the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway and the Hon Eugenie Sage for the work and the collaboration that's gone into the creation of this bill. It will generate $450 million over the next five years and that money will be ring-fenced and it will be divided between tourism and conservation.Tourism is one of our biggest economic sectors. It does employ directly 200000 New Zealanders. It does indirectly employ close to 170000 New Zealanders. It generates $39 billion in GDP every year. The sector has grown in strength. We've had over the last five years increasing visitor numbers. Numbers have increased by 35 percent over the last five years. Last year we had 3.8 million visitors to New Zealand and that's expected to grow to over 5 million visitors by 2025. So the sector is in good health but we have to manage the sector better and that's what the previous Government failed to do. The growth has brought economic and employment growth but it has also created the challenges.My first Christmas as Minister of Tourism I was inundated with the problems around responsible camping and that is a legacy of the previous Government. That is the problem that they mismanaged. They couldn't manage New Zealand as a destination our communities were swamped and we were in danger of losing our social contract with New Zealand with New Zealanders with communities all because of the legacy of the poor previous Government.So the combination of population growth and increasing visitor numbers meant that local infrastructure was struggling to keep up and further the wealth tourism has brought has not been evenly felt across Aotearoa. We have pockets of high tourism numbers—Auckland Rotorua and Queenstown—but there was neglect in the regions as we know which is the hallmark of the previous Government.But the Government we're committed to tackling these problems head-on. I just want to refer to a press release from Stuff. It says After years of dilly-dallying over a levy on international visitors we now have one". The previous Government they knew that we needed to have an international visitor levy. They knew that we needed to have sustainable long-term funding mechanisms but they twiddled their thumbs they gazed at their navels and they did absolutely nothing to establish a sustainable funding mechanism.We're committed to tackling these problems head-on. Minister Sage and I a couple of weeks ago jointly announced the Aotearoa New Zealand Government Tourism Strategy and the strategy signals an active and deliberate approach to tourism. The international visitor levy contributes to the strategy in a couple of ways. Firstly as I've said there's a long-term and sustainable funding mechanism and secondly we're going to invest in ways that support the goal of the strategy ultimately that tourism enriches New Zealand. And that was one of the problems that the previous Government had that tourism was actually in danger of dragging down those smaller communities who are overwhelmed with the numbers of tourists.So the Government we're going to use the levy to address the infrastructure issues we're going to better manage our destinations and we're going to enhance and protect our natural environment. People come here to New Zealand to see our landscapes and we have to protect those landscapes. They come here to meet our people and they come here to hear our stories. In particular I want to say that because New Zealand combines the landscapes the people and the stories really really well and I have to say that the whole Māori contribution to tourism is something that we need to grow and develop even further.It's my belief that tourism should add to the lives of New Zealanders not take away and we know that for many communities under the previous Government tourists and visitors were taken away from a number of communities. It was left up to local governments it was left up to New Zealand's ratepayers to actually have to stump up with the bills to fix that infrastructure that that previous Government was unwilling to support New Zealanders on.I'm proud to stand here and support the bill. It'll enable the Government to better support a sustainable tourism industry. Sustainability is essential in tourism and will help communities to create the type of destination they want to become and will protect our iconic species and our landscapes. Tourism has the ability to bring people together to foster people-to-people connections and to improve the lives of New Zealanders as long as we can manage it properly. So therefore I commend this bill to the House."