Double Dipping Tourist Tax: National’s Mt Cook Diversion

The Taxpayers’ Union is criticising the National Party’s newly-announced ‘foreign visitor charge’ for popular Department of Conservation sites, calling it a distraction from the real economic challenges facing the country.

Taxpayers’ Union Spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“We were expecting a real economic announcement at the conference, a plan to get the country moving. Instead, the Prime Minister’s big idea is to charge backpackers more to visit Mt Cook.”

“It’s just another example of National shifting deckchairs: symbolic, superficial, and totally disconnected from the scale of the economic challenges we’re facing."

“If Labour had proposed this, National would be tearing it to shreds. Instead, they’ve slapped a fresh label on an old idea which won’t fix DOC’s ballooning overheads or inefficient spending .”

“We already have an International Visitor Levy to fund tourism and conservation. Doubling up makes New Zealand look tourist-hostile and it opens the door to charging Kiwis next.”

“The Government should be cutting DOC waste, not taxing trampers at the trailhead.”