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Louisa Steyl / Things
ACT party candidate Nicole McKee, party leader David Seymour and rural spokesperson Mark Cameron visited a Wreys Bush farm on Monday to announce the party’s rural policy, before heading to Te Anau to speak with tour operators.
The partial reopening of the border will be on the tour operators’ letters if the ACT party is elected.
Party leader David Seymour announced ACT’s tourism policy in Te Anau on Monday night, as part of his Change Your Future bus tour.
A consistent approach is needed across the industry to support tour operators, he said.
Seymour criticized the government’s Strategic Tourism Asset Protection Program, which he said had “targeted well-recognized operators, just so politicians can take photos of themselves while handing out a check.”
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The fund was designed to protect major tourism businesses, but a group of South Island operators, many of whom are from Fiordland, have sought legal advice and are asking MBIE to review how the money was allocated.
Some felt that the playing field was no longer level, because their competitors had received funding, while they were not considered eligible. Others did not apply because they thought they did not meet the criteria.
“We can’t fix the tourism industry by picking winners,” Seymour said. “What the tourism industry needs are tourists and the certainty of getting them.”
ACT proposes that high-value foreign tourists be allowed into New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic, that a joint public and private pandemic response team be established, and that travelers be subject to regulations based on the situation of the pandemic in your country. originally.
The party wants to relax the Department of Conservation restrictions and create more flexible labor laws.
The latter would include a three-year moratorium on raising the minimum wage and recovery of 90-day lawsuits for all companies.
On the tax side, the party has pledged to cut the GST from 15 percent to 10 percent for 12 months to encourage domestic spending and abolish the $ 35 international visitor conservation and tourism tax.
Seymour said the policies would help the tourism industry recover “after being hit by Covid-19.”
“We have to think outside the box,” he said.
Seymour also visited a Southland dairy farm Monday morning to announce ACT’s rural policies.
