Despite the many and varied issues the Queenstown Lakes district faces over the next three years, perhaps the most critical is actually this election.
Candidates have been grilled at a variety of forums over recent weeks where the big topics have been relatively consistent.
- Housing affordability and how it relates to the district’s present workforce shortage.
- Transparency, or lack thereof, from the Queenstown Lakes District Council to the communities it serves.
- Economic diversification.
- Climate change.
- Sustainable and regenerative tourism.
- The course the billion-dollar Lakeview-Taumata development, near Queenstown’s CBD, has taken.
- The ambitious capital works programme under way which, in the 2022-23 year, totals $244.4 million.
They are but a few of the issues the next council will have to deal with.
There will also be the contentious reforms of Three Waters, resource management law and local government — outgoing mayor Jim Boult has predicted, regarding the last of those, that Queenstown Lakes may be put under pressure to combine with the Central Otago District Council at some stage in the future.
Then there are the issues each community in the district faces — from liquefaction risks in Glenorchy to Kingston’s continued lack of a reticulated sewerage and water scheme, pressure on Arrowtown’s urban growth boundary to Hawea’s infrastructure issues, particularly regarding its Three Waters, to name a few.
To residents of each community they, too, are major issues.
Such is the job of elected members, to balance the needs and wants of the all the district’s residents and work collectively to get the best outcomes for the present community and future generations.
Come next month, 12 people will be tasked with making decisions in the best interests of the community at large.
Election promises are one thing, but the reality of what is possible — particularly in three years — is another.
It will be one of the most inexperienced councils the district has ever seen.
The only mayoral candidate with direct elected member experience is present councillor Glyn Lewers, who is not standing to be a councillor again.
Of the 10 incumbent councillors, just four are seeking re-election — two in the four-seat Queenstown-Whakatipu ward, one in the three-seat Arrowtown-Kawarau ward and one in the four-seat Wanaka-Upper Clutha ward.
However, candidate Lyal Cocks previously served 12 years, to 2016, before standing down, while Barry Bruce has also served one term on the Wanaka-Upper Clutha Community Board, of which he is chairman.
Even if they are all successful, they will only just outnumber those around the council table who will be new to local body politics.
For a district which has, for two and a-half years, been in the proverbial washing machine stuck on the spin cycle, it is critical the next elected members hit the ground running and are capable of working together to lead all its communities to a stronger, more united future.
The repercussions of a council unable to do so do not bear thinking about.
