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Speaker 1: Queenstown and its popularity. Issues there back in the news

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Speaker 1: are growing concern it can't cope with the growth it's got.

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Speaker 1: I mean, how many times do we have to do

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Speaker 1: this story? We've been doing this story for like twenty

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Speaker 1: or thirty years. Haven't we a got tame many pravaline Queenstown.

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Speaker 1: On the tourism side, they're at twenty eight percent over

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Speaker 1: COVID and that's compared with the rest of the country

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Speaker 1: we're in eighty six percent. Then you've got the cost

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Speaker 1: of actually living there, which is a problem as well.

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Speaker 1: Julie Scott is the chief executive of Queenstown Lakes Community

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Speaker 1: Housing Trust and as well as Julie morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: How long have you been in.

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Speaker 2: Queenstown twenty two years? I've been here.

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Speaker 1: Well, you've been here a thousand times, haven't you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we've been round around on this Merry go round of

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Speaker 1: stories before, haven't we. It's Oh, Queenstown's getting a bit

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Speaker 1: busy or Queenstown's getting a bit expensive. Has anyone actually

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Speaker 1: in the ensuing year has done anything about it at all?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Arguably our council was a leader in this space

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Speaker 2: in terms of providing solutions for affordable and community housing.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely and do they.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they do. So we have this tool called value capture,

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Speaker 2: which means that the community shares in value uplift that's

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Speaker 2: created through the rezoning of land.

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Speaker 1: Why do the council Why are they hated by so

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Speaker 1: many people? Is it because of the infrastructure in the

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Speaker 1: road and the fact you can't get anywhere and things

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Speaker 1: like that.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I think that's a bit tough to say that

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Speaker 2: the council is hated by so many people, But certainly

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Speaker 2: there's a little bit of resentment there from the community

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Speaker 2: around infrastructure issues. There are some pain points there.

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Speaker 1: What's the major issue? Is it the tourist influx or

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Speaker 1: is it the cost of actually living in Queenstown.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's necessarily the tourist influx, and I

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Speaker 2: don't think that the community has any issues with tourists

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Speaker 2: per se. It's simply that we don't have the infrastructure

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Speaker 2: that underlying infrastructure, there's pressure points on the road and wastewater,

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Speaker 2: et cetera to enable that tourism and those the population

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Speaker 2: growth that where.

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Speaker 1: It is it the rating based problem? You know, small town,

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Speaker 1: you know, small number of locals comparatively speaking, requiring massive

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Speaker 1: amounts of infrastructure you can never afford. Is that in

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Speaker 1: a nutshell the problem.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's it in a nutshell, and to that we

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Speaker 2: really need some tools to enable us to have a

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Speaker 2: more equitable share and how the infrastructure is paid for,

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Speaker 2: such as a bad tax would be a great example

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Speaker 2: of how we could spread that.

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Speaker 1: Those costs, and as central government on board with those

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Speaker 1: sort of ideas, or as local government battling this by themselves.

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Speaker 2: Local government has been battling it for a long time.

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Speaker 2: But look, we remain positive. We're one of three regions

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Speaker 2: that have been working through a regional deal with government

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Speaker 2: and that's certainly one of our our asks for this

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Speaker 2: regional deal.

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Speaker 1: I saw some pictures over the weekend of Queenstown. There

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Speaker 1: seems no snow or were they file pictures? Is it

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Speaker 1: snowed properly yet?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's definitely snow up there. All the hills,

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Speaker 2: all the local mountains are open and something. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's not the head of a season, but there's suddenly

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Speaker 2: snowed up there to ski.

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Speaker 1: Good to talk to you duly appreciate it very much.

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Speaker 1: Julie Scott, who's where the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing crust.

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