It really is about time for a clear explanation of the proposed bed night levy, as the debate has been hijacked by sloganeering politicians worried about the upcoming election – so here are a few home truths.
These levies are everywhere around the world. Unfortunately, our MPs don’t actually pay the hotel bills when they are on their offshore junkets; we, the taxpayers pay them. So our MPs never see the bills or they would have known that nearly every city that they stay in adds a few per cent to the bill to fund the local tourism industry.
This was not my idea, so picking on me because I am the mayor of the biggest city just misses the point. The idea was put to me by the accommodation industry, including all the big hotels, the motels and also short-term rental groups like Airbnb – so it’s universally supported by the industry, whose prices would rise by 2.5%.
The idea is to build a fund for local spending by collecting this money from visitors. In other words, the $27 million that would be collected in Auckland for Auckland would not cost any Aucklanders a penny as we already live here and don’t stay in hotels.
In Auckland, that money would be used to fund big, popular events like a State of Origin league game or SailGP – we have already lost next year’s version due to government interference. In other cities like Queenstown, they would use it for public amenities like toilets as that town is almost overwhelmed by tourists who don’t pay for such stuff, hence the Queenstown Mayor is even grumpier than me about the bed night levy not appearing. In Auckland’s case, we stand to lose events like the ones mentioned.
It is not a tax. Taxes are unavoidable but the bed night levy is avoided by simply not staying in paid accommodation. The word tax is used so that simplistic slogans like No More Taxes sounds like a call from simplistic politicians that you had better vote for them. But you might miss out on events – so maybe that slogan is a dud.
Governments have muttered about alternative funds for the council to cover the cost of tourism. Simply to have the Government actually pay rates like everyone else would be a good start, but any alternative money it comes up with has to be from taxes. Well, Aucklanders pay 40% of all tax collected so if tax is used, then Aucklanders would be being taxed to pay for a levy that visitors would pay for.
The National Party, which has now joined Act in opposing the levy, says it has done this to reduce the cost of living for Kiwis. Well, if you believe this, you’ll believe anything.
Firstly, the cost of the levy is free to locals, unless they take money from our tax, and secondly, when there is an event on, hoteliers double the room rates. This is a bit like airlines who have all sorts of prices for the same seat anywhere and our Prime Minister should definitely know this, given his time running the state airline.
Is reneging on the City Deal (another slogan) a very good idea? Obviously not, as the voting public are now being subjected to all sorts of promises and, with the ink only just being dry on the Auckland City Deal before the bed night levy is dumped, then the voting public have every right to disbelieve all those other promises and simply look at what has and what has not been achieved in the last three years.
Just three years ago, National was telling us voters that it was strong on localism and was going to put the local back into local government. Perhaps it meant “lo cal” as in low calorie, like some popular beers, but it doesn’t sound like it was honouring many promises.
You have to wonder what sort of election strategists would think that risking the losing of sports events, music events, arts events, cultural events and so on in our biggest city was going to get more votes.
I know how to win elections in Auckland, having achieved a majority of 100,000, or four times the crowd at the last Warriors game, just 10 months ago. You need clear policies, spoken about in clear English, that are kept to.
Try that, central government candidates.
Wayne Brown has been the Mayor of Auckland since 2022, and was the Mayor of the Far North from 2007-2013.
