Nick Leggett: Infrastructure NZ chief executive on Queenstown being warned it needs to boost infrastructure

Queenstown will need to double its infrastructure within 15 years to keep pace with growth, according to Southern Infrastructure chief executive Ross Copland.

Copland warned  the resort town’s roads could reach capacity by the end of the decade - and said changes need to be made.

Infrastructure NZ chief executive Nick Leggett says Queenstown draws in a lot of visitors and it'll leave a bad taste if people can't get around properly.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now there's a warning that Queenstown needs to double its
infrastructure in the next fifteen years. It's come from the
boss of Southern Infrastructure who says the population in Queenstown
is booming and the roads and utilities aren't keeping up,
and the pitch that he's got is a gondola network.
Nick Leggett is the CEO of Infrastructure New Zealand and
joins us now Henik, Hello, head, I mean he is right,

(00:20):
isn't he that the infrastructure is just not keeping up.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh, it's not. I mean, you think about how Queenstown
has grown so massively over the last forty years, and
it's not just the big growth and the struggling infrastructure
that they've got a precarious electricity connection, they've got very
poor health services, really bad housing supply, and then that's

(00:44):
before you get to the water and the roads and
big congestion. People notice that the people who live in
Queenstown every day, but also visitors, and it is, you know,
it's kind of the postcard view of newse And it's
a lot of visitors experience, you know, and it sets
you know, it gives them a taste of New Zealand.

(01:06):
And if that's difficult to move around, or there's you know,
there isn't reliable infrastructure that leaves a bad taste potentially,
So we do have to do something for the people
who live there and for the visit of Thelke.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, we've been talking about this for ten years at least,
probably even longer than that, Like, how is it that
we haven't done anything about it?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah? Look, isn't this the great New Zealand story? Though?
We are brilliant at admiring a problem and we just
don't execute. And I think that is it's the big
infrastructure challenge. It's like it's if you do see a need,
you've got to invest. And what we've actually got to
invest in a lot of is the assets we already owned,

(01:47):
but in Queenstown's case, it's actually new stuff. And so
I think unlocking new ways of funding. Like we had
an event last year with Sir John King and Queenstown
and he backed the position that infrastructure New Zealand gone,
let's unlock some different ways of funding things. So we
talked about a bed charge, which is where you would
put obviously a charge on all those overnight beds. You know,

(02:12):
because any given night twenty five percent of people who
are occupying a bed in Queenstown are not permanent residents,
and there's about half a billion dollars to spend on
three water infrastructure alone over the next ten years.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Wait on that hotel tax, though, do you put it
on just hotel beds or airbnb beds as well?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I think I think you would do it on every
guest beds. That's the thing. And it's not like it's
not a tax, it's actually a charge for a service.
And New Zealand is really poor at charging people directly
who run up a cost and so we reckon that.

(02:51):
That would probably generate about twenty five to thirty million
dollars a year for QUEENSTOWND. Imagine if that every year
was able to be invested in servicing debts that built infrastructure.
And that's before you even get to the gondola. You know, Queenstown.
If you think about those people who visit, know that
between the airport and the sort of central part of
town is the narrow bench and you can't build out

(03:13):
the road, right, you can't do anything with roading. We
have to look at alternative ways to move people.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Are you suggesting you gondola over.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
From the all around around and that's the that's the proposition, right,
and it's going through the fast track now it b Yeah,
we'll get a good hearing. And let's a joke.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Why can't they just do normal things like buses?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Well, because because you know the road, the road is limited.
You actually can't really do more with the roads. You know,
you know what it's like, it's like long and narrow
and there's either there's a lake on one side and
peny of houses on the other. So you've got you
haven't got much room to play with.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Come on, now, come on, give me the chances that
we actually end up building a bloody gondola.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Well, what I would say is let's have an open
mind to it. And there are plenty of other problems
we can fix there with with the tools that we've
gotten that we don't have. If you think about electricity supply,
if you think about water, and you think about housing.
But the gondola, we've got to find alternative ways of
moon people around. So like, I'm open to it, Like
it's not a stack up. I'm not saying I'm not

(04:16):
saying build it. Well, I'm saying, is let's give it
a fair hearing.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Okay, all right, Nick, let's see I love it, I
love it. I love a looney idea, so we'll see
if it happens. Nick Leggett, Infrastructure New Zealand CEO.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
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