Tourism Minister Simeon Brown (left) has been in the news this week after announcing a $32.9b transport spend-up, while Tourism Minister Matt Doocey announced a hike to the International Visitor Levy. Photo: RNZ
Analysis - The government began the week with its most important announcement of the week - a $32.9b transport spend-up over the next three years.
As National campaigned on bigger, better roads and Transport Minister Simeon Brown's mantra has been "getting Kiwis around quickly and safety" it wasn't surprising to see where the money was going.
"The National Land Transport Programme for the next three years has a hard focus on more state highways, road maintenance, and greater public transport in the country's main cities," RNZ reported.
It quoted Brown: "There's less money going into cycleways, and I think New Zealanders are sick and tired of the amount of money going into cycleways."
He's probably right about that being the attitude of the majority of road users - ie motorists - and it was a populist line Brown has used before.
Another of his driver-friendly lines has been about money wasted on speed bumps and he delivered on that as well. There's no money for speed bumps.
There was the inevitable trashing of the previous government's policies.
Brown said New Zealanders had "rejected the previous government's transport policies which resulted in non-delivery, phantom projects, slower speed limits and an infestation of speed bumps".
There's a great deal of detail in the published documents, it's all explained in RNZ's report 'Government to spend nearly $33 billion on transport over next 3 years'.
Nothing in it was surprising.
National has always been the party of roads, the Greens the party of public transport and Labour somewhere in between trying to please everyone.
Reaction was, therefore, as predictable as the plan itself.
"The Government Policy Statement on Land Transport was so tightly nailed down that it's exactly what we have been expecting, and that is that the majority of the government's investment will be into roads," said Labour's transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere.
He said the plan lacked ambition for communities and cities.
"Roading is absolutely important but so are things like public transport, so is rail, so is road safety."
Simeon Brown said less money would be going into cycleways. Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
The Greens said more people were going to have to rely on cars and trucks to get around because there was no "pipeline" of alternatives like rapid transit, inter-city passenger rail, public transport and safe walking and cycling.
"We need to ramp up investment in public transport infrastructure in order for it to really make a difference in people's lives, and especially because of climate change we have to radically reduce our emissions," said transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter, covering all the bases.
With the big transport announcement going down without much fuss, it was left to a lower profile minister to create some controversy.
Tourism Minister Matt Doocey announced the International Visitor Levy was going to nearly triple from $35 to $100 per visitor.
It affects visitors other than those from Australia and most Pacific islands and is used to fund infrastructure and conservation projects that support tourism.
Doocey said the hike was necessary.
"International tourism also comes with costs to local communities including pressure on regional infrastructure and higher upkeep and maintenance costs across our conservation estate," Doocey said.
Conservation Minister Tama Potaka backed him up, saying the industry should subsidise the cost of supporting tourism.
"Taxpayers already contribute close to $884 million a year directly on tourism and conservation, including tourism promotion, natural heritage and recreation," he said.
A charge of $100 per person was in line with similar levies in Australia and Britain, the ministers said.
None of this went down well with the tourism industry.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram, reported by Stuff, said the increase would scare off tourists and cost businesses.
She estimated a reduction of 48,000 visitors equating to $273 million in lost spending.
Ingram said the association would have supported an increase from $35 to $50, and pointed out that at $100 per person it worked out at a $500 entry fee for a five-person group.
Taking into account visa fees, on top of the levy, Ingram said a family of four would have to pay $2000 to get into the country.
Ingram said research showed people often weighed up travelling to either Canada or New Zealand - and compared with the $2000 cost, Canada charged $880.
"We're very disappointed that the government hasn't heard the collective feedback of the industry," she said.
Doocey didn't agree, saying he was confident the increase wouldn't result in fewer visitors.
"The advice I've received from officials is there is no evidence that the increase in the IVL will have a significant impact on visitor numbers," he told Checkpoint.
"In fact… most tourism operators are telling me that they're getting higher yield from their products and delivering better quality experiences."
Doocey said the $100 fee would only be around 2 percent of what a tourist would spend on average.
Matt Doocey said he was confident the hike in the International Visitor levy would not result in fewer visitors. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Cath O'Brien from the Airline Board of Representatives didn't buy that.
"In 2022 the Ministry of Business completed a regulatory impact statement that specifically gave evidence of demand reduction for tourism in the face of increased international visitor levy costs," she said.
"At that time we were talking about visitor numbers decreasing by 92,000 to 101,000, potentially reducing on-the-ground expenditure from those visitors within a range of $100 million to $597 million."
Individual operators were also worried, as RNZ reported in its article 'Tourism operators concerned levy hike will deter travellers'.
Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said he was disappointed.
"Tourism's got the real opportunity to grow and contribute to increasing the exports for New Zealand and we've just put another barrier to entry," he said.
Button was worried visitors would restrict their spending as a result of having had to pay so much to get in.
Queenstown operator Matt Wong, owner of iFly, said the increase came at a challenging time for a sector that was still recovering.
"The market is really price sensitive at the moment. There's a lot of competition… so it may put off quite a few visitors," he said.
The Herald headed the health horror story category this week, reporting that patients were queuing from 6am, in the cold, outside a GP and urgent care clinic in Ōtara.
They said they were there because of the long wait times and difficulty in getting appointments with other GPs, whose books were full.
Reacting to that report, the interim chairman of the advocacy group General Practitioners Aotearoa, Dr Buzz Burrell, said the report was shocking.
"It was probably the most frightening demonstration of inequity that you could possibly ask for in primary care in New Zealand," he said.
"We expect to see pictures like that in third world countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar, but not in New Zealand.
"I think probably what's also heartbreaking is you probably wouldn't see that in Remuera."
Burrell said patients all over the country had to wait weeks to see a doctor at their usual clinic, and even then they were unlikely to see their regular doctor.
True family medicine involved continuity of care, where a patient could see the same GP over and over when they needed to, he said.
"I think it's so close to dead that we might as well call it out for what it is," Burrell said.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has been criticised for not prioritising general practice care. Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
That quote brought about a front page headline of 'Death of the family doctor' in the Herald, and Health Minister Shane Reti was asked to comment.
He said technology had a role to play in easing the administrative burden.
"Reducing this burden will involve solutions such as telehealth and inbox management," Reti said.
The report said Health NZ had proposed a 4 percent increase in funding for GP clinics and provision for clinics to increase their fees.
Burrell said it was disappointing.
"A 4 percent increase in the funding is not even a drop in the ocean. It should have been 140 percent," he said.
He was also disappointed with the minister.
"I think we were all looking forward to a GP (Reti was a GP before coming to Parliament) coming in all guns blazing, and in the first 100 days promising and then delivering on hugely improving general practice," Burrell said.
A spokesperson for the minister said Reti absolutely recognised and valued the passion of doctors such as Dr Burrell.
"It (general practice) is certainly a challenging space but the minister is committed to making a difference," the spokesperson said.
Burrell, who has been a GP and rural hospital specialist for 30 years, said he didn't believe the government was prioritising general practice because it was "too unsexy" for politicians who preferred to campaign on hospital level care.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was out the country this week, visiting Malaysia and South Korea.
This didn't generate much coverage, although when he got to Korea a spokesperson said he would not be meeting with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and the cancellation of the Interislander ferry contract would not feature during his visit to Seoul.
The Maritime Union said it was "disgusted and angry" about that, RNZ reported.
The cost of exiting the half billion dollar deal with Hyundai has not yet been announced, though the Maritime Union estimates it could be as high as $500m on top of what has already been spent.
The union's national secretary, Carl Findlay, said the "reckless decision" had left the country in a state of limbo with no resolution in sight.
He said Luxon should use his "much-vaunted international business experience" during his trip to Seoul to settle the cancellation or renegotiate for new ferries.
"He really needs to go over to Hyundai, cap in hand, and say, hey, my finance minister made a massive stuff-up. It's costing New Zealand taxpayers a lot of money. Let's resurrect this deal and get something sorted," Findlay said.
A spokesperson for Luxon said the prime minister had no meetings planned with the shipbuilding company, nor did he expect to raise the project during any other scheduled meetings.
"We do not consider the cancellation of i-Rex (the project) to have an impact (on either the trip or the wider relationship)," the spokesperson said.
In a separate report, RNZ revealed New Zealand officials notified their Korean government counterparts they were scrapping the project via text message less than an hour before the public announcement.
The report detailed the timeline, and said the text messages were sent despite MFAT previously warning ministers that cautious talks with South Korea would be needed.
The text messages were obtained under the Official Information Act.
*Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament's press gallery, 22 years as NZPA's political editor and seven as parliamentary bureau chief for NZ Newswire.
