Mayor Steve Chadwick says confirmation there will be no
additional MIQ facilities in Rotorua is great
news.
“It’s really good we have been listened to
and I thank Minister Hipkins and his Cabinet colleagues for
that.
“The prospect of more MIQ in our city was
genuinely worrying and it was good to see the community and
local leaders, including our MPs, getting activated and
voicing their concerns.
“Those of us who met with
MIQ officials last month – including representatives from
Council, Lakes DHB, Te Arawa and Rotorua Economic
Development – were very emphatic that Rotorua is already
doing its share of the MIQ load for New Zealand and cannot
sustain any more.
“Minister Hipkins was also
informed and very aware of our collective concerns and we
were assured that our views would be taken into
consideration,” Mayor Chadwick says.
“For us it
was about supporting our health and police staff, who are
already stretched supporting our existing MIQ facilities,
supporting all of our businesses and operators who rely on
tourism and ensuring we retain capacity for
visitors.
“We are still in very challenging times
with COVID and New Zealand is not out of the woods yet, but
here in Rotorua we are also trying to work on some other
very big local challenges, like
housing.”
If you're using Scoop for work, your organisation needs to pay a small license fee with Scoop Pro. We think that's fair, because your organisation is benefiting from using our news resources. In return, we'll also give your team access to pro news tools and keep Scoop free for personal use, because public access to news is important!
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (A) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was touting to voters last year has now blown out to $2.9 billion. (That’s a 38% size error in the calculations.) (B) unable to provide assurance that this handout won’t simply be pocketed by landlords (C) unable to explain why Treasury (in research as recent as August 2023) wasn’t citing the loss of interest deductibility as a prime factor driving up rents. More than anything, the Great Landlords Handout undermines the government’s alarmist talk about the state of the country’s books... More
Government: One-stop Shop Major Projects On The Fast Track The Coalition Government’s new one-stop-shop fast track consenting regime for regional and national projects of significance will cut red tape and make it easier for New Zealand to build the infrastructure and major projects needed to get the country moving again... More
Government: GPS 2024: Over $20 Billion To Get Transport Back On Track Transport Minister Simeon Brown has released the draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport, outlining the Coalition Government’s plan to build and maintain a transport system that enables people to get to where they need to go quickly and safely... More
Winston Peters has announced NZ is providing a further $5M to respond to the extreme humanitarian need in Gaza and the West Bank. “The impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on civilians is absolutely appalling," he said... More
Judith Collins has announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister Jason Scott McHerron as a High Court Judge. Justice McHerron graduated from the University of Otago with a BA in English Literature in 1994 and an LLB in 1996... More