National goes user pays, while Labour rules out PPPs

Fees for international tourists to stay in Milford Track huts will double if National returns to power at the election.

A National Party proposal to hike fees for international visitors is not a step towards a broader tax on tourists, leader Bill English says.

During a visit to Wanaka today, English announced that the cost of using the five most popular Great Walks would double for foreign visitors if National remained in power, and increase on other tracks.

The cost of staying in a hut on the Milford Track during peak season would rise to $140 under the proposal and would stay at $70 for New Zealanders.

"We believe it's fair that those who are willing to travel around the world to have those experiences help us with the real cost of maintaining those walks," English said.

National also said yesterday it would put another $4.5 million into community-led conservation projects. It has long been accused of underfunding the Department of Conservation, which has led to a fall in frontline staff.

English defended his Government's approach, saying that it had taken a longer-term view of conservation which required buy-in from businesses and volunteers, rather than just raising spending.

The National-led Government has resisted going further and introducing a tourist levy at the border, which was recommended by the former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright earlier this year to cover shortfalls which were threatening New Zealand's wildlife.

The Green Party has proposed a $20 "taonga tax" on tourists, and says it would also double DoC's baseline funding. Labour is likely to propose some form of tourist levy when it reveals its updated fiscal plan next week.

Jacinda Ardern yesterday ruled out a bed tax, but said some additional investment in tourism and conservation was needed.

English said National's proposed fee hike was "not a step to some generalised visitor levy". While tourism growth in New Zealand was positive, he said the Government needed to be "careful about piling up costs" on visitors.

Ardern spent today in Dunedin, where was she met by students chanting "Oh, Jacinda Ardern" to the tune of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" - a chant used by supporters of her British counterpart Jeremy Corbyn during the British election.

Like the Government last week, she confirmed Labour would build a new hospital in Dunedin but with one key point of difference - it would not be a public-private partnership (PPP).

The $1 billion cost would instead be met through Government money. That would allow a Labour-led Government to have greater control over the project, Ardern said, and it would be completed earlier than the seven to 10-year timeframe proposed by the National Party.

"We've always taken the view that things that are critical like hospitals, schools, corrections services should stay with the state," Ardern said.

English rejected her argument that core public services should not be PPPs.

"One of the reasons we are getting so much roading done, so many schools - $1 billion in schools just in Christchurch - and we're getting them done on time and on budget, in fact sometimes before time and under budget, is because the PPP process makes you sort out all the issues."