No support for bed tax

Steven Joyce
Steven Joyce.
The keeper of the Government’s purse has hammered another nail in Queenstown’s bed-tax coffin.

Finance Minister Steven Joyce told a business audience in the resort yesterday supporters of direct tourist charges were assuming they would not affect visitor demand.

In response to a question from NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson, Mr Joyce said New Zealand was already a high-cost destination in world terms, and a bed tax or visitor levy could lead to visitor "price resistance".

"We can’t assume that just because we’ve got growth now, we’re always going to have growth."

But the Government received GST revenue from visitors, and did need to "step up" its contribution to infrastructure projects in tourist centres such as Queenstown.

His comments come a month after Tourism Minister Paula Bennett said she did not favour direct tourist charges.

The two ministers’ stance is not shared by Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult, the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce or even local MP Todd Barclay, who are all in favour of using revenue from visitor charges to improve the resort’s creaking infrastructure.

Mr Joyce told media after his speech that new ways of funding infrastructure would feature in his May 25 Budget speech.

He told Mr Boult yesterday he wanted local government to "think a little more inventively" about how to pay for infrastructure, such as encouraging private sector investment and public-private partnerships.

He also wanted councils such as the Queenstown-Lakes council to be "more specific about what they needed" in the way of tourism infrastructure.

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