There is keen anticipation amongst some in the Lakes District, including ODT contributor Roger Sharp (Opinion 19.9.25), that the much vaunted Regional Deal forum is going to provide some kind of miracle remedy for the region’s serious infrastructure shortfall, and by implication that it won’t cost the hard-put-upon ratepayers.
Road gridlock, urban sprawl, partially treated sewage pouring into the Shotover River, urban-contaminated stormwater degrading our lakes and waterways, strategic bridges at capacity (including the near new bridge on the Kawarau), poor healthcare facilities, etc.
Roger asks "Why is this happening?", but instead of confronting the real answer (or any answer) chooses instead to focus on "solutions", but only the one, which is that all will be solved by a Regional Deal.
He then leaps to remark that "the sheer desirability of the place means that growth is not going to stop any time soon", thus obliquely acknowledging the real reason why Queenstown is in such a mess — the unsustainably high growth, which he effectively tells us he has no wish to stop any time soon.
As a businessman, who benefits significantly from that growth, what he really means is that it does not suit his purpose to even think about solutions which might offer a model for sustainably managed population and visitor growth, consistent with the environmental, geographic and social capacities which clearly constrain our unique region.
Bigger is not better. Many within the community have been saying that for quite some time now.
But the deaf ears of the business-oriented council and senior executives, and the profit expectations of the business and tourism community, have sidestepped that call and refused to countenance any such constraint.
Touting Regional Deals is a complete distraction. They are not going to extract any central government funding for infrastructure, nor likely to generate indirect revenue via visitor levy funding (this government sees mass tourism as a national deficit panacea and will not want to discourage people from coming here by meaningfully increased prices), so the most likely outcome will be a call for increased privatisation of public facilities. Is that what we really need?
And importantly, will it provide a "solution"? Almost certainly not.
Unless we actively work to control the growth of the last 20 years or so we will never get ahead of the curve of infrastructure shortfall, irrespective of how it might be funded.
That Kawarau bridge is an example. Just a few years old, and already at capacity.
Show me a motorway that has solved traffic congestion for more than just a short time? Ladies Mile?
On the other hand, if we wait another 20 years or so Roger’s solution just might get to work, because by then we will have stuffed the place up so badly that the sheer desirability is no more.
— Andrew Millar is a Queenstown Lakes District Council ratepayer.
