Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop recently told TVNZ’s Q&A part of the discussion with the first three cabs off the rank — Tauranga, Auckland and Otago Central Lakes, which includes the Queenstown District Council, Central Otago District Council and Otago Regional Council — was around "asset recycling" or divestment.
Mr Bishop said the government wanted to have conversations with those councils about "whether or not they’ve got the right asset mix, locally".
"It could be the case if those councils and those regions decide to do some divestment ... that central government may be willing to chip in some money on top of that in order to go to a particular infrastructure need, identified for that region."
The councils, he said, had identified a series of priorities. Otago Central Lakes were, in order, capturing value, transforming transport, electrification, private investment-public health and visitors and investors — and "want commitments around that".
"Well, OK, we may be prepared to come to the party around some of those commitments, but there’s got to be skin in the game for them as well," Mr Bishop said.
Asked for his reaction to that, Mr Lewers said for the Queenstown Lakes district it was a moot point.
"We have no assets to sell. We’re tapped out.
"Unlike the government, we’re actually supporting growth instead of just talking about it."
He said the council had to invest in more than just core services to enable growth, noting this district’s GDP was growing twice as fast as anywhere else in the country.
That was because the council, which was up to its debt limit, and the private sector, had invested in it.
"If that investment isn’t forthcoming from government, the good news story that is Queenstown Lakes, the shining light in the economic story of New Zealand, will start to diminish."
The council, over the past three years, had done a strategic review of all its land and assets and was progressively releasing those to pay down debt.
"We’re not like other councils that have a large, historical endowment of land given ... we’re pretty skinny ... we don’t have large tracts of land that we could just sell off," he said .
The last remaining piece of such land was a 10ha block of the original Commonage land, vested in the council by the government in 1971.
The council, via real estate agency Colliers, sold the block this year for $33 million. Mr Lewers said the proceeds were going to water and wastewater.
And while Mr Bishop pointed out Auckland Council had recently sold down its shareholding in Auckland Airport, Mr Lewers said it would be "a pretty shallow thought" for the QLDC to sell down any of its 74.99% stake in Queenstown Airport, which just posted an $18.8m dividend, of which $14.1m went to the council.
He also said the council had forgone about $400m of dividends over the next decade to advance the airport and help grow the New Zealand economy.
"I don’t see the government stumping up anywhere to grow the NZ economy when it comes to Queenstown Airport — it’s the council and the ratepayers doing it."
In terms of future discussions with the government around "stumping up" for a regional deal, Mr Lewers believed the QLDC had "already come to the party" — any decisions for CODC or ORC in relation to potential divestment was for them to make.
He believed regional deals represented a "great opportunity".
"I’m just hoping the government grasps it and realises the full potential."
