They were the words of Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers during an economic update yesterday focused on the case for a regional deal for Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago, in partnership with the Otago Regional Council.
His comment was prompted by Arrowtown-based regional economist Benje Patterson, who told Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce members if present trends continued, the combined population of the Central Lakes — Queenstown, Wānaka, Cromwell and Alexandra — would be higher than Dunedin by 2039.
Mr Patterson said that presented “an extraordinary growth opportunity for New Zealand if we get it right”.
He described Queenstown, Wānaka and Cromwell as “Otago’s engine room” and said since 2000, 50% of the entire Otago province’s growth had occurred in the Central Lakes. During that same period, Queenstown Lakes had quadrupled in size and Central Otago had more than doubled.
“New Zealand has not even doubled since the new millennium.
“It’s hard for central government to wrap their heads around that, when you have other parts of Otago that grow by less than a percent a year — places like Dunedin.
“So this model of legacy-based investment in Dunedin, based on it being this large, metropolitan area, yes, of course they need investment in their infrastructure, but they will no longer be the second-biggest place in the South Island.
“We will be.”
Mr Lewers said the council’s underlying assumption was there would be just over 7% growth per annum over the next five years, flattening to 3% per annum over the following five years.
Investment of just under $760 million was planned in tourism infrastructure over the next two years, and a further $950m in growth infrastructure, “just so we can all get by”.
“This is why we need a true, mature partnership to unlock the growth we do have, to actually grow well, and actually drive quality of life that we all came here for.”
Mr Patterson said, based on existing trends, Central Lakes would be $5 billion a year bigger as an economy within the next decade, noting, however, the present productivity was about 10% below the rest of the country.
“Imagine if we had that sort of tripling of our economy since 2000 … if that had occurred with absolutely world-class infrastructure, that was built with the actual growth that occurs here in mind.
“Imagine if we had these emerging sectors that were able to flourish, because they had the right sort of infrastructure in place.”
One such example was education.
He noted the University of Otago had announced a move to Queenstown — one he encouraged it to progress, with haste.
“It’s historical nostalgia that ties us to Dunedin.
“We’re actually more closely connected as people these days to Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne, and those unis, they’ll get here if Otago doesn’t.”
The councils were asked to pitch for five outcomes as part of their “light touch” regional deal proposals — for the Central Lakes, they included capturing the “value of growth so it’s shared amongst us all”.
Mr Lewers confirmed that meant a proposed visitor levy was “back on the table”.
“I can tell you now, there is positive response from the government from two of the three coalition partners.”
The QLDC will vote on the proposal on Tuesday, while the CODC will vote on Wednesday — the deadline is next Friday.
