[Missing Credit][object Object] Exploration has always been a hazardous undertaking: venturing in to the great unknown with only one’s wits and instincts to guide you to see what can be found. It can be a perilous undertaking, and history’s pages are strewn with tales of shipwrecks, maladies and other disasters which have befallen intrepid adventurers down the centuries. None of which deterred Prime Minister Christopher Luxon from agreeing some months ago to embark on some exploration of his own, specifically on the feasibility of a visitor bed tax. ``Exploring’’ such an idea was in an agreement recently signed between the government and Auckland concerning issues confronting the city. In the still to be signed regional deal between the government and Queenstown there is a similar provision for exploration of a bed tax — something which successive Lakes region councils have called for since at least the early 1970s, only to be rebuffed. However Mr Luxon has put his compass and sextant back in the cupboard and announced that all exploration of the great unknown was to be halted. National was going in to the forthcoming general election on a policy of imposing no new taxes, he said, and that included a bed tax. To say the least, this has infuriated Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, long an advocate of such a measure. Many Queenstown notables, who would have signed their regional deal, complete with its exploration provision, a fortnight ago but for Mr Luxon having important business with his caucus in Wellington, are also profoundly dismayed by what they believe is the Prime Minister reneging on a promise. The regional deal for Queenstown was to include an exploration of the idea of a bed tax — earlier this month, when asked about a bed tax in the tourist resort Finance Minister Nicola Willis specifically noted that Auckland’s regional deal included exploring ``our potential for accommodation to be there.’’ Hence, those Auckland and Queenstown civic leaders do indeed have a point when criticising Mr Luxon. Having said that, there is quite a long distance between exploration and actually finding the South Pole or the Northwest Passage. National, as well as other parties in the current government, have a long history of opposing a bed tax. Mr Luxon explicitly ruled out introducing such a measure in his first visit to Queenstown as Prime Minister, and Ms Willis said something similar soon afterwards. Simply exploring something does not equate to sticking a flag in it and declaring it will come to be. There was every chance, given the track record of the governing parties, that a bed tax would not have been what the intrepid adventurers negotiating the issue would have come back with. There are arguments against a bed tax, as proposed. Mr Luxon’s key objection was that Kiwi holidaymakers would be stung by it, as well as the overseas tourists who were its intended target. Other issues include its administration cost, its potential to disincentivise visitors, and whether the funds derived from and collected for the purpose of funding tourist destination infrastructure, would instead vanish into the general taxation pool. But, equally, there are compelling reasons for some kind of measure being adopted. Of the 3.6 million overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in the June 2026 year, more than a million of them landed at a South Island airport; almost half a million landed at Queenstown. Both Queenstown and Wānaka have burgeoned in recent years and demand to visit either town shows no sign of stopping. Each needs a range of expensive infrastructure projects which cannot be afforded from the current district council’s rates take. Those towns, and other popular destinations, have called for help for years, but just as they thought those cries had been heard it turns out that they may actually have been chasing a mirage. Help may still be on its way; Mr Luxon did not rule out other measures being considered and working with council to manage the problems. As it happens, his current deputy Prime Minister, Act New Zealand leader David Seymour, is campaigning for a $1 a night ``local tourism dividend’’ on visitors as one option. However, Mr Seymour also pointed out that visitor spending amasses more income, through GST, than they take out of New Zealand in terms of services. Perhaps how to get that money from government to the provinces is where the next expedition needs to start exploring.
