ACT leader David Seymour visited Wānaka on Friday (September 29) on the campaign trail, accompanied by Waitaki ACT candidate Sean Beamish and Southland ACT candidate Todd Stephenson.

Following a walk around Wānaka businesses with Wānaka Business Chamber chief executive Glenn Peat, Seymour and his entourage attended an hour-long public meeting in the Lake Wānaka Centre, which attracted close to 60 people.

Seymour met with the Wānaka App before the public meeting, where we put a range of questions to him.

Local infrastructure funding 

How does he propose to help communities like the Upper Clutha provide the infrastructure required to support the number of visitors that use the facilities? Will he introduce a bed tax?

Seymour has previously proposed that councils identify a wishlist for infrastructure before asking for investors from both within New Zealand (“it could be ACC, iwi, a super fund”) and outside the country.

ACT doesn’t favour a bed tax, he told the Wānaka App, but rather sharing a proportion of GST with councils.

His proposal is for GST on residential construction, multiplied by seven and a half percent, which in Queenstown Lakes would equate to around $40M.

Management of water assets

ACT will repeal Three Waters and put councils in charge of their assets. Given our local water supplies are controlled by council but some do not have required protozoa barriers, how would ACT policy improve the health and safety of our water?

Seymour returned to his previous point that the range of funding mechanisms for infrastructure are too limited.

“I think the creation of Taumata Arowai as a neutral referee of water quality is important, and I think accurate water pricing is really important too, because if you don’t know how much you’re getting for a cubic metre of water it’s quite difficult for someone managing a water utility to know how much to invest in a particular activity, such as maintenance, expansion and so on.

“I think there are a number of changes that need to be made, but fundamentally councils should be the owners of water assets as it’s ratepayers that pay for it, and democracy - while it has its critics - is still the best way to organise our water activities.” 

Problems in Queenstown Lakes water supplies are caused by a lack of funding rather than a lack of appropriate skills, he said. “That’s why our solution is to diversify the range of funding mechanisms.”

Equitable health services

If an enrolled patient presents to their GP in Wānaka with chest pain, the cost to the patient can be several hundred dollars to cover the Doctor time, nurse time and investigations such as ECGs and blood tests. The patient in Dunedin would go to ED for free. The practice gets no money to cover this so the burden is on the patient. How will you address this inequity?

“There are three different things there. First, ACT’s alternative budget sets aside money to increase the GP capitation fee by 13 percent or about $163M. Second, it’s the nature of the capitation fee that you get a certain amount of money per patient; many patients will never present and cost you nothing, some patients will cost you significantly more than the capitation amount - that’s not a bug in the system, that’s a feature of it. 

“Finally, the real issue is the Central Lakes district has a population not too much smaller than Palmerston North which has a significant hospital and I do think there is the case for the next government to consider a fair share for this region. I don’t think there would be such a populous region that has so few … tertiary hospital facilities. The growth of the region justifies it getting a fairer share. “

Housing availability

Seymour drew rousing applause at a debate in Queenstown last month when he said locals weren’t renting their houses but putting them on AirBnB “because they don't have to meet healthy homes standards”. He said the “war on landlords” needed to stop.

If you want to improve housing availability do you plan to restrict AirBnB? 

“No, but I think no-fault terminations will do a lot to make traditional renting more attractive.

“A lot of people are in the AirBnB space because it’s been made harder to rent out as a landlord. Ditto Healthy Homes, you can AirBnB without Healthy Homes. [The healthy homes standards introduce specific and minimum standards for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture and drainage, and draught stopping in rental properties.]

“The question is should the government ban people from renting their houses without it. One of the effects of requiring Healthy Homes is that homes that could have been rented out are now not rented out and there are fewer options for people who’d like to rent because those homes are either lived in by the owner, rented via AirBnB or left vacant.”

Are you concerned that would mean there would be homes rented out that are not up to standard?

“Well at the moment they’re not rented out at all, so would you like them to be rented out or not? … My suggestion is to think hard about the consequences of governments putting policies in place for real people, and the consequences of Healthy Homes and removing no fault tenancies for real people in this district is they have nowhere to live.”  

On current polling Todd Stephenson (Southland) is ranked fourth in the ACT party list, and is certain to secure a seat in parliament. Sean Beamish (Waitaki - Lake Hāwea) is ranked number 38 out of 61 ACT candidates.

Read more: Gloves off as politicians debate local issues

PHOTO: Wānaka App