Stewart Island levy bill under way

The Southland District Council (Stewart Island Visitor Levy) Empowering Bill 2010 had its first reading in Parliament last week and now goes to the Local Government and Environment Committee.

Council senior policy analyst Wayne Heerdegen said this legislation will give Council the power to set and collect a levy from visitors to Stewart Island. The levy will be used to help pay for infrastructure, services and amenities that are used by visitors.

"At the moment, the cost of things like toilets, walking tracks and other amenities is paid for by the 400 residents and ratepayers on Stewart Island," Mr Heerdegen said.

In the short and long term the trend is for increasing visitors to Stewart Island, in particular through cruise ship visits. One cruise ship planning to visit has capacity for 1400 people.

All of this activity requires the adequate provision infrastructure, facilities and amenities to ensure that visitors have an authentic experience that does not strain the resources of Stewart Island, he said.

"A reliable, fair and efficient way of ensuring the cost of visitors is not unfairly borne by residents and ratepayers alone is through a small levy ($5) payable by visitors to Stewart Island. Visitor levies or similar charges are common in Europe and the United States."

Stewart Island residents and ratepayers will continue to fund their share of infrastructure and services.

It is intended that the levy will be administered by a subcommittee of Council, consisting of tourism/transport operators, community board members and district councillors, and the committee will ensure the industry and community can monitor the levy and set priorities for how the revenue will be spent.

In collecting the levy, Council intends to work with operators to ensure costs and minimised and where appropriate reimbursed.

Stewart Islanders, Southland District residents and ratepayers and all of New Zealand will be entitled to review and comment on the proposed legislation when the legislation is considered by the select committee.

"Council and the Stewart Island Community Board want to thank Invercargill MP Eric Roy for the successful introduction and first reading of the bill," Mr Heerdegen said.