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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Simon Barnett and James Daniels Afternoons

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Speaker 1: podcast from News Talk ZB.

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Speaker 2: James Dolan's given us a call. He's a board member

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Speaker 2: of the Tourism Industry are tiot Are and strategic director

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Speaker 2: of the Hotel Council Good.

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Speaker 3: I James, Hello, Chance, how are you good?

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Speaker 4: Mate?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm picking you're not a fan of the bid text?

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Speaker 3: Hey, you know what you picked that wrong side. The

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Speaker 3: hotel industry has come out and said we are not

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Speaker 3: opposed to new revenue mechanisms if they're done right right.

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Speaker 3: But there's a lot of weight being put on the

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Speaker 3: words if they're done right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I say that, how would they be done right

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Speaker 2: in your view?

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Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you what you know. We've got local councils,

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Speaker 3: local Government, ends ED which is a lobby group, and

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Speaker 3: some leading mayors around New Zealand. And I'll tell you

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Speaker 3: what they're not doing. They're not talking in good faith

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Speaker 3: with industry about this. They're off lobby and government instead.

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Speaker 3: And you know this is a big issue because in

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Speaker 3: New Zealand, local councils don't have the ability to put

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Speaker 3: a revenue tax on a business. And I don't think

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Speaker 3: they should have that ability. Only about twenty or thirty

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Speaker 3: percent of New Zealander's vote in local council elections. So

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Speaker 3: you know, a bed tax done right wouldn't be a

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Speaker 3: decision taken by a local council. It would be a

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Speaker 3: decision done nationally and done by talking to industry. Ye.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, but they can talk to you directly the government

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Speaker 4: through the select committee process. Do you need a council

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Speaker 4: to deal directly with you, guys?

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Speaker 3: Well, this is what the councils are asking for. They're

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Speaker 3: asking for the power to decide at a local level,

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Speaker 3: whether it's you've said five dollars, two and a half percent,

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Speaker 3: twelve percent, who knows? And I don't think. I'll tell

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Speaker 3: you what. The industry does not trust local councils to

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Speaker 3: have that power.

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Speaker 4: How do you get on? How do you get on

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Speaker 4: with Auckland City Council who wanted to institute an accommodation

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Speaker 4: rate and then they were taken to court by hotel providers.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you what they did. They didn't have

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Speaker 3: the power to put bed tax on. They didn't have

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Speaker 3: the power to do that. So what they did was

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Speaker 3: they increased your property rates by massive amounts. And if

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Speaker 3: they hadn't suspended that property rate the accommodation provide a

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Speaker 3: targeted rate, then lots of small motel owners would have

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Speaker 3: gone bankrupt. That's how badly designed it was. Right, and

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Speaker 3: this is a complex area because if an American buys

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Speaker 3: a New Zealand hotel room through an American online travel

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Speaker 3: agency who collects the tax, we've got we've got computers

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Speaker 3: talking to each other, We've got agents who sell packages

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Speaker 3: to Chinese travelers, and all of the rates are kind

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Speaker 3: of blended together. This is complex stuff. We've got to

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Speaker 3: do it once, and we've got to do it right

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Speaker 3: for all of New Zealand, not Allman Council or Queenstown

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Speaker 3: Council running off doing their own thing.

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Speaker 2: So you'd you would be comfortable if it was through

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Speaker 2: central government, not local government, in other words, and central

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Speaker 2: government talking to groups like yourself, getting alongside you.

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Speaker 3: Correct. And look, we totally understand and have sympathy for

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Speaker 3: the basic problem that say Queenstown Council has. And you

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Speaker 3: know what that problem is. Central government collects three point

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Speaker 3: nine billion dollars in tourism GST and they keep it

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Speaker 3: all most of it for themselves. That's the main problem. Interesting,

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Speaker 3: So that's the problem that bad tax would solve, and

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Speaker 3: it would help potentially get new money for the councils.

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Speaker 3: But and it's a very big butt. No one in

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Speaker 3: industry wants local councils kind of creating their own tourism taxes,

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Speaker 3: and no one wants all sorts of different levels of

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Speaker 3: tax up and down New Zealand. That would be a

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Speaker 3: terrible results.

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Speaker 2: I agree with that. That's very well said, James. Do

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Speaker 2: you think, because we've got a lot of texts saying

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Speaker 2: that five dollars it's just going to put people off.

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Speaker 2: We're struggling with tourism in this country. We're really at

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Speaker 2: the low end of the totem pole in terms of

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Speaker 2: attracting tourists. Do you think five dollars would be a

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Speaker 2: sort of a negative for people wanting to come to insit.

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Speaker 3: I don't for a second think five dollars is the

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Speaker 3: number that would make anyone happy on the council side.

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Speaker 3: So you know, that's a first comment. But we've got

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Speaker 3: to be very careful right now because New Zealand has

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Speaker 3: not got the same number of visitors back as we

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Speaker 3: had in twenty nineteen, and we've already increased our visa

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Speaker 3: charges by about eighty dollars ahead, we're about to increase

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Speaker 3: our border tacks by anywhere between fifteen to sixty five

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Speaker 3: dollars per head. And if there's a new accommodation levy

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Speaker 3: introduced nationally in New Zealand, it's not going to start

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Speaker 3: from tomorrow right. This is going to take years, a

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Speaker 3: couple of years at least to do properly.

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Speaker 2: James, excellent to talk to you. Thank you very much

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Speaker 2: for calling us really really good thoughts.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, James dool.

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Speaker 2: On, board member of Tourism Industry Al Tirtre and strategic

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Speaker 2: director at the Hotel Council.

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Speaker 1: For more from Simon Barnett and James Daniels afternoons, listen

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Speaker 1: live to news Talks at B or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio