Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Tamah Alley: Central Otago Mayor on the long-term agreements between regions and central government

Transcript

Tamah Alley: Central Otago Mayor on the long-term agreements between regions and central government · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Remember these city regional deals the government kept banging on about.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Well we've got a bit of movement here. Three regions Auckland,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: or Otago and Western Bay have plenty, all agreeing on
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a memorandum of understanding ahead of actual negotiation for the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: deals Central Otago. Tama Elie is with me this morning.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Tama, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Good to have you on the show. What if you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: actually agreed to agree.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: On that's a good question. We have kind of agreed
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: to meet at the starting line. So we have been
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: invited to the process to begin negotiations, which I guess
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: is the first step, hopefully a promising one.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Right, So is this a bit of an announcement about
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: an announcement? They've announced that you guys are going to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: sit down and talk.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, and you know we love that in
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: local and central government. So it's a neat place to
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: be in. It is the beginning of a process. But
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: we have been working on this since late last year,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: so it's something that has been and trained for quite
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a few months now.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: If this works, it's a ten year deal. Paint us
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a picture. What new things will your area have? Roads, gondolas?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: What are we talking.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I guess it could be anything in everything. We've put
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: together a list of sort of priority areas for ourselves
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and Queenstown Lakes District Council, supported by our regional Council,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: and then it'll be up to us to negotiate with
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the government and here kind of where they see their
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: priorities aligning with ours, recognizing that they've been very clear
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: that there is no new money coming, So it'll be
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I guess, a process whereby we figure out how we
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: might pay for any new projects that come out of that.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: If you could have one project, TMA, what would it be.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Hey, we are really short on water storage in our
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: area to manage resilience for both our towns and our farmers,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: so I would love to see something like that in
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the mix. But it isn't a sciation process and we're
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: just one of the parties there, so we'll see where
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: we get to with that one.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Will rate payers end up after this process paying more?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The government says there's no cash to throw around, but
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: you will. There'll be visitor charges, potentially, congestion charging, special
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: rates for certain areas, development charges. This is all sounding
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: quite expensive.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Well, and all of those sounding like there are things
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: that rate payers shouldn't have to pay for. So that's
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: one of the things that we are looking to do.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: We know we have hit peak rates for our people
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and we are looking at tools that aren't going to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: be their back pockets. The idea of investment coming from
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: outside of the region and making us a bit of
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: a shopfront for potential investment opportunities for not just New
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Zealanders but also overseas will definitely be something that we're
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: looking at.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm what I'm saying is at some point
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: someone's going to have to pay for this, aren't they,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: And it's going to be whether directly through rates or
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: through tolls or whatever it might be. It'll be your
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: people that pay it, isn't it?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Well, it will. But a big part of it is
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: also around housing, and we know that more and more
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: people want to move to this part of the country.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: The more people that you have, the more it's spread out.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: But we also know people enjoy living here for particular reasons,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and we want to protect why people move here in
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: the first place, the landscape they enjoy, the ease of
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: life they enjoy.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time this morning, TALM and good luck with
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: your negotiations Ellied Central Otago MIA. For more from Early
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to News Talks it
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio