The Waitaki candidates in this year’s general election were put under the microscope on Tuesday night (September 7) at a ‘Meet the Candidates’ function at the Lake Wānaka Centre.

A crowd of 121 attendees listened respectfully to candidates' views on topics ranging from the proposed airport at Tarras to climate change action and Resource Management Act (RMA) reform.

Tarras airport proved a divisive topic, with the candidates split when asked for a yes or no answer to whether they supported the proposal.

“Absolutely not,” Labour candidate Ethan Reille said. “Regenerative tourism does not look like building yet another airport in our local community.”

Related: Tourism organisations oppose Tarras airport proposal

The Green’s Pleasance Hanson supported Ethan’s position, saying: “We need to do everything we can to get our carbon emissions down.”

The pair were joined in the ‘no’ camp by Anthony Odering (New Zealand First), and Ray Bailey (New Zealand Loyal).

ACT’s Sean Beamish and National’s Miles Anderson said they supported the proposed airport as long as its approval goes through the appropriate processes and the community has input.

Democracy New Zealand’s Roger Small said he was “not against progress” and he supported the proposed airport as long as “there is very good infrastructure to support an airport like that”.

The candidates were also split when a member of the public asked the candidates for their plan to tangibly achieve climate targets.

“It's a cycle of nature,” Roger Small said. “I see the weather, these major weather events and they've always happened in the past and they will always happen in the future.”

Sean and Miles said New Zealand technology could provide solutions to the climate “issue”. 

“We want to be able to access gene editing technology so that we can breed grasses and farm animals that produce less methane,” Miles said.

“We have committed obviously to increasing our electricity production from renewable sources. We think that it's quite doable by 2030 if we utilise new technologies.”

“I don't think there's any value in catastrophising at all,” Sean said. “We need to make good, logical decisions.”

Ethan and Pleasance took a strong stand on climate change, emphasising that it “is real” and now is the time to act.

“We want to put in place a Climate Change Adaptation Bill that will have specific measures to help us meet our goal,” Pleasance said.

“We also want to create a Zero Waste Agency that will also help businesses and householders and corporations deal with zero waste.”

Ethan said climate change is the single largest issue the planet faces and New Zealand is “not exempt”.

The candidates also offered different views on the Resource Management Act (RMA) when asked how they would address affordable housing in Wānaka.

“The first thing we'll do is we are going to repeal the Resource Management Act,” Miles said.

“We're going to encourage councils to have a 30-year plan for development … We're going to introduce an infrastructure fund. We're also going to introduce another fund for councils if they meet certain targets.”

Ethan said it was important the RMA reform is implemented “so that we can help local housing developments”.

He pointed to the support of the Queenstown Lakes District Housing Trust, which has provided housing for more than 250 families.

Meet the Candidates was a public event organised by the Wānaka Business Chamber.

The general election is scheduled for October 14.

PHOTO: Wānaka App