Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Glover: Queenstown Mayor on National's alternative to a bed tax

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John Glover: Queenstown Mayor on National's alternative to a bed tax · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: National's got an alternative to a bed tax. They're going
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to redirect the international visitor levy money to councils. Now,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: about $ 385 million will be handed out over four years
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: based on visitor nights. Auckland will get $ 19. 1 million given
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to them by the government in year one. And Queenstown Lakes,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: $ 17. 1 million. Here's Nicola.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Next four years, which will come from future operating allowances.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: That's so we can keep people on the front line
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: at dock doing their jobs, and so we can ensure
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: that we still have funds available to the government for
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: strategic tourism priorities.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So joining us is John Glover, who's the Mayor of Queenstown. Hello, John.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Yes, good morning, Andrew.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: So are you pleased with this? Is it better or
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: worse than a bed tax, or at least is it something?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Well, we didn't have a bed tax on offer. It's
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: something we've been looking out for for about the past
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: 10 years. So it's not as good as a local
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: accommodation levy, but it's better than what we've got at
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: the moment, which is very, very little.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, as Wayne Brown pointed out yesterday, the councils will
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: get less in a bed tax. And they're also a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: bit worried about the fact that Wellington is in charge
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: of doling out the money. So is that a rat
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you're prepared to swallow?
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think nobody really knows how many
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: people spend and might wear around the country, so that
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: hopefully won't consume... Too much angst, but obviously there's a
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: lot of Airbnbs and nights spent there that never make
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: it onto any sort of government statistics. Look, I think
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: if the money comes back to councils and we're allowed
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to spend it in our own way, that would be amazing.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: It's a good start, but it's not as much as
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: we would have collected if we'd been looking at a
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: local accommodation living.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Queensland Lakes gets $ 17. 1 million. Now, what can you
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: do with that?
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, you can do a huge amount. I mean, when
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: you think that our population doubles with tourism, so there's
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: 50,000 residents in the district, we'll get another 50,000 on
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: a busy day, so everything needs to be twice as big.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: So that's your waste collection, the size of your park reserves,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: sport halls, swimming pools. We've got some really expensive roads
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: to maintain in our rural backcountry network, so if somebody
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: wants to go to the Rootburn Track, for example, they
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: expect the roads are going to be there, and of course,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: these are quite quite remote, expensive roads to maintain. So, yeah,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: no shortage of options.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Well, that sounds like a long list, but $ 17. 1 million
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: isn't a big sum.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Well, no, but it's maybe $ 17. 1 million if this is
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: what comes out after the election, and obviously that's the is.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: But it's $ 17. 1 that we wouldn't have to get from
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: our ratepayers, and they're currently picking up the tab at
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: the moment.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: True enough. And it's snowing down in Queenstown, and I
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: know this because all the ski fields have extended their season,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: so that's got to be good.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, it is. It's amazing. And I was at the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: media yesterday, and the hills were just looking amazing in
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: the background. So it's really good. What we do need
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: is spend on the infrastructure, on our public transport, on
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: our roading network, so people can get around easily and effortlessly.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Good on you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: John, you live in a lovely part of the town.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That is the mayor of Queenstown. That is John Glover.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: to Newstalk ZB from 5 a.m.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.