Last year was no exception.
As the resort continued to battle with a rental housing crisis — an ongoing issue across the Queenstown-Lakes for about 18 months now — forcing hundreds of the town’s workers to sleep in cars, couch surf, hot-bed or, in some cases, share a room in a three-bedroom house with up to seven others, The Rees Hotel chief executive again stuck his head above the parapet.
Frustrated with the implications short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, continued to have on the resort’s rental housing market, and the implications of that on the community, Mr Rose went on the record with Mountain Scene in September, calling out the Queenstown Lakes District Council for failing to follow the lead of other cities worldwide.
He noted renting a room out to somebody on Airbnb was a different situation from having 10 houses on the platform, which was, in his view, a commercial enterprise — which did not need to comply with healthy homes standards, or have sprinkler systems installed, unlike other commercial accommodation providers.
For the council’s part, Mayor Glyn Lewers said New Zealand’s legislative system did not give the council the same powers as other cities internationally, and if the council could regulate Airbnb, "we would try".
The same month, Mr Rose blasted the council again after a "boil water" notice was put in place following a Cryptosporidium outbreak, with more than 60 cases eventually confirmed in Queenstown.
After regulator Taumata Arowai slapped the council with a compliance notice, some residents, including businesses, had to boil water until December, until the council either installed a protozoa barrier, or another supply was found.
A UV system was subsequently sourced from the Waimakariri District Council and installed at the Two Mile water treatment plant last month.
Mr Rose was outraged, particularly given there was a protozoa filter in place for Arrowtown, but not Queenstown, the hub of the district, which attracted millions of visitors a year, believing the council should increase rates, or at least tie them to the consumer price index to enable it to better fund core infrastructure.
