Speaking at a sold-out Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce lunch at Sherwood yesterday, Ms Willis had a strong message for the "wonderful people in Queenstown" who were opposed to more residential development, because it might change vistas and increase the population.
"I know growth’s hard, but honestly, you guys have enough land, you just need to release it and it would solve a lot of the problems that people in Queenstown experience."
However, she accepted Mayor Glynn Lewers was "sitting in a hot seat".
"On the one hand, you have all of the things that I wish for the rest of the country, which is a high growth rate, people coming in, opportunities.
"But with that comes the challenges of growth.
"How do we deliver the housing and the infrastructure to support that?"
Infrastructure was one of five key areas the government was focused on to enable the country to fulfil its potential.
She noted Queenstown residents were better aware than almost any other place in the country, "if you don’t build infrastructure well, and in a timely fashion, you hold back growth and you hold back living standards".
While as a country New Zealand, as a proportion of the economy, was in the top 10% for public investment in infrastructure when compared to other countries around the world, "the kicker" was it was in the bottom 10% for value from investment.
"This is why I think people are obsessed with the road cone issue, because road cones are symbolic of the fact that we just seem to build infrastructure slowly, badly, in the wrong order, it costs too much, seems to have too much red tape."
Ms Willis said the infrastructure system needed to be improved, and more infrastructure was needed to cater to growth. However, she wanted to see lower rates rises, noting the "biggest spike" in recent inflation statistics came from rates.
Ms Willis said that was one of the reasons the government was keen on regional deals, because it enabled parties to open their minds to other funding and financing options beyond rates for infrastructure growth, and partnerships to make them possible.
"I'm really delighted for this region that we're going to do a deal with you, because you are a growth success story in so many ways, but you also typify some of the challenges of growth.
"So whatever we're able to deliver for you that works hopefully we can replicate in other parts of the country, so that's really exciting for our shared futures."
Ms Willis said while a regional deal was a "friendly and collaborative thing", it was also a negotiation, but she would not comment on when the first deal might be confirmed.
