The Prime Minister has announced his intention to charge an international visitor fee for access to Aoraki, Tongariro, Piopiotahi and Te Whanganui-A-Hei.
In doing so Mr Luxon is making a number of assumptions.
First, that he owns Te Taiao. (He does not).
Second, that he can charge for access to Te Taiao (He cannot)
Third, that he will be able to compel tangata motu to prove their right to enter Te Taiao by means of a passport, drivers licence, birth certificate or other form of identification. (He will not be able to do so).
Fourth, that by turning tricks on Te Taiao he will raise about $60m in new revenue. (He will not).
Mr Luxon’s scheme will come unstuck because tangata motu will not stand for it. They will not grovel before Mr Luxon or one of his flunkies standing at the gate. They will not show their credentials and they will not argue the point.
They will go where they want to go without let or hindrance from the colonialist regime.
If Mr Luxon needs more cash, let him go to his boss, Donald Trump. Let him ask Mr Trump to scale back the military tax on New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product from the present 2% to its previous level of 1%. Or let the said Mr Trump waive his 15% tax on New Zealand exports to the US. Those measures would restore $2.5 billion and $1.4 billion respectively to the New Zealand economy and in the process solve Mr Luxon’s budget problem.
Mr Luxon, please remember that Te Taiao is not yours to have or to sell. It belongs to tangata motu, who have the God-given right of free and unimpeded access. When you put your men or women at the gates of these far away places their authority will not be recognised by tangata motu.
Then, because it will become evident to manuhiri that you are unable to control the movements of tangata motu, the manuhiri themselves will see no reason to submit to you. They already pay a visitor fee on crossing the border, and they will not want to pay you twice for the same service.
If you try to force submission your $60 million will disappear in a flash. Policing is not cheap in these far-distant corners of the motu.
If you choose not to use force, your takings will ebb away and be fully used up by the cost of manning the gates.
You may be the Prime Whoremaster of the colonialist regime, Mr Luxon, but that is all you are. You are not the gatekeeper of Te Taiao. You will not control our people and you will not sell our land.
Are these rebels the same ones who would fight to the death to keep their patches .Charging people from overseas is common in most countries that I have traveled to so why is it so wrong here .If the idea keeps the numbers down it is a win win for all local NZ traveller’s.
Trevor why do you call Geoff a rebel.
His name would suggest he is one of your whanau.
Do you consider him a rebel because he has a different opinion to you. One I might add has actually been thought out and articulated very clearly.
The fact that you think the idea is to keep numbers down is ludicrous. I didn’t see that thought coming from Luxon, his motivation is money. He could get that money more easily by upping the entry fees across the border. A simple change, no extra infrastructure or personnel needed. But he can’t do that because he opposed those charges while in opposition.
I agree with Geoff, there is no way I will front up and provide documentation to visit somewhere that is owned by me and my whanau already.
You may find you will have to pay because you are obviously a visitor to our fine land and certainly cannot claim any ancestral rights.
Trevor, you have to remember that there is already an International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) of NZD $100. That levy is easy to collect and it has a wide reach. So why add this additional international visitor fee, which is going to be difficult to collect, at the gateway to certain natural areas? Why not just add another $10 to the IVL which would bring in more revenue with no additional collection cost?
The answer must be that this new charge is not really about international visitors at all. It is a step towards charging all New Zealanders for access to natural areas. The theory is that after New Zealanders have got used to the idea of producing ID in order to get access to these areas, they will more easily accept being asked to produce a payment instrument at some future time. All those New Zealanders who arrive at the gate without having brought ID will have to pay as though they were foreigners in any case. So, the government is thinking that in a relatively short space of time it will be charging both foreigners and locals for access to these spaces. There will be no extra collection costs. In fact overall collection costs may drop, because paying by a card, phone or cash is quicker than checking someone’s ID.
I agree with you that another purpose of the plan is to help restrict tourist numbers in areas that are approaching or exceeding carrying capacity. The access fee would be cranked up to the point where the number of visitors was reduced to the carrying capacity of the area.
To a person like Christopher Luxon this makes sense. However, he is being less than honest about it. If he wanted to tell the real truth to the New Zealand public he would say this “We are bringing in an international visitor levy at certain popular tourist sites. Later this will be extended to all other high use tourist locations, and eventually New Zealanders will be required to pay the same levy as foreign tourists. The levy will then progressively be increased as an instrument to control the numbers of people visiting popular sites and to fund certain government activities”.
The end result is that access to these popular locations will be restricted to relatively affluent foreign tourists and relatively affluent New Zealanders. To Christopher Luxon, who doesn’t understand New Zealanders or their values, that will represent an ideal outcome. But to those of us who are egalitarian and uphold the right of all New Zealanders to enjoy the best of their own country, it is unacceptable.
Another land grab for the last bastion of Maori land .If those areas are not owned or stolen by Pakeha they must be MAORI land .So step one should be getting consent from Maori before making any such announcement to the world .If there is $60 million collected it should go no where near the general fund and should be paid directly to the conservation dept and must be ring fenced so as greedy Willis cant get her grubby little hands on it .
Another great piece Geoff
Great bit of writing, thanks Geoff.
Makes me wonder if Luxon and Trevor have ever been near these highly popular visitor attractions.
A hut to house the money collectors will be needed. It’ll have to be warm because sitting around near the Tongariro Crossing can get chilly, also a toilet. Then strong fences built right around the attractions themselves. Now, that will raise the ire of everyone. The fences and huts will be eyesores and soon become magnets for trouble, vandalism etc. Expensive repairs and maintenance.
This could get very expensive, very quickly. Also, very ugly. Much like the muddled thinking exhibited by the gate-keeper-in-chief
All of this talk of NZers paying a fee for access to places and spaces in our own country makes me think why us Māori are having to pay tolls for roads built on our land often confiscated or taken under the public works act. And im right and Trevor can fuck of as they are Pommy gits who left their own country for similar reasons to what is happening here in our country.
All of this talk of NZers paying a fee for access to places and spaces in our own country makes me think why us Māori are having to pay tolls for roads built on our land often confiscated or taken under the public works act. And im right, Trevor and that dick head trumpet can fuck of as they are Pommy gits who left their own country for similar reasons to what is happening here in our country.
Some people may be wondering why I, as a self-described nationalist, am so opposed to charging foreigners for the privilege of enjoying our natural heritage.
The reason why is not just to do with the fact that I believe it most likely that the charges will in due course be extended to our own people.
It has to do with a fundamental difference in attitude between the colonialists and tangata motu.
For the colonialist, everything is up for sale. The land, everything that grows upon the land, everything that lies beneath it and everything that flies above it. Every stream, river, lake, harbour and estuary. Every bird, frog, lizard and fish. Everything has a price. Nothing is sacred. Even the sovereignty of the nation itself is something to be traded for material advantage.
Consequently, the colonialist is devoid of mana. He has no self-respect, and therefore is given no respect by others.
Tangata motu have the mana that comes from the knowledge that some things which may be given cannot be sold. That includes all that is most precious to us, the things which are inextricably part of our mana as a people. The things that are sacred, holy or tapu.
A colony, like a slave, can carry on an existence without mana. A nation cannot. In saying to the foreigner “There are things that we can give to you, but will never sell to you” we assert that mana.
In charging foreigners for the privilege of exploring Papatuanuku we would be prostituting her and ourselves. We would become like the degenerate British aristocracy, who entice the gawking middle classes to wander through their stately homes for a “modest consideration”.
Mr Luxon may not be any better than that, but we are. The land must not be prostituted in this way.
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