A former West Coast mayor who is running for Parliament has faced tough question over NZ First’s plans to support councils.

NZ First’s West Coast-Tasman candidate Jamie Cleine, a former two-term Buller mayor, told a West Coast Regional Council candidate briefing this week his party backed the use of the International Visitor Levy (IVL) for tourism to aide local infrastructure development.

However, NZ First remained on the fence about financial support in light of local government reform.

The West Coast has seen a 10% increase in visitor spending as of May 2026 and a 30% growth in international visitor spending in the same period, according to figures from Development West Coast.

Mr Cleine said he wanted to see central government fund the costs of amalgamations, rather than the cost being foisted on ratepayers.

WCRC chairman Colin Smith said tourism used local infrastructure, including roads and wastewater treatment.

He asked whether NZ First would ensure tourism contributed more to local infrastructure development in regions like the Coast, “to ensure that tourism as an industry actually puts back into infrastructure”.

“Would you support allocation of IVL to local government?”

Mr Cleine said he supported the use of IVL in the local government sector, noting it has already been allocated to some extent.

“It has been done a little bit now through the tourism infrastructure funding, a contestable fund. The West Coast have done quite well out of that over the years.”

Mr Cleine said he was unsure of NZ First’s policy on whether IVL money would be distributed to the regions based on the level of tourism activity, although he agreed prioritisation of funding from the levy would be up to the West Coast.

“Certainly the original thinking around the mining royalties coming back to the Coast was that mining royalties would be tipped into one big pot, so would IVL,” he replied.

Cr Smith said the government’s Head Start scheme for council amalgamations implied a merger of councils in the region would be unsuccessful if there was no “fiscal underpinning” of a new local government arrangement.

“The question is, will New Zealand First ensure that as part of the local government reform, there will be a viable fiscal underpinning of any new arrangement,” he asked.

Mr Cleine said NZ First acknowledged the regions cannot shoulder the full costs for infrastructure projects, and the community expected it to make changes.

“It is certainly not lost on New Zealand First that the community has a limited ability to keep absorbing more of these costs, but we are feeling a majority sentiment… that the expectation is that something needs to change and should be looked at.”

Cr Smith reiterated that local government reforms without any financial support was “pointless”.

“You cannot have one without the other, you have got to have the local government reform, and you have got to deal with that fiscal issue, particularly for the West Coast.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air.