Trust Accountability Experience
I am absolutely committed to ensuring
a more sustainable and prosperous
future for our communities.
Experienced leadership
We need effective, experienced and independent leadership to bring about real change.
I bring decades of relevant experience in private and public sector leadership. My expertise is in local government, economic development, and emergency management. Principal roles included leadership and team development, change management, and crisis recovery. Experience that our communities need right now.
Snapshot
Born in Queenstown in 1964. Raised in Queenstown and Glenorchy. Worked in tourism and conservation locally, including three seasons managing lift operations at Coronet Peak and the Remarkables.
Extensive experience in private and public sector leadership. In New Zealand, the UK, North America, and Southeast Asia.
Working remotely for Massey University and running leadership development in disaster management for local and central government, community groups and infrastructure provider leaders.
Married with two adult children who both work in the tourism industry. My wife and I live in our off-grid eco home-stay just South of Kingston.
A Little About Me
Let's Get Ahead of Change
Culture Change
As a real team player and strong voice for our communities on council I will bring a new openness and culture of trust to council and management.
Revamp the council’s committee structure for the 21st century, putting the community and environment at the centre.
We need to have councillors act as spokespeople for issues they care about and have expertise in.
We must open all possible council workshops to the public and media, and stream all them so everyone see democracy being done.
Ensure engaged, transparent and accountable leadership and governance for our communities.
Bring community and business credibility and talent into council leadership, planning, and delivery.
Economic Change
A DIVERSE, RESILIENT AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
We need to promote, enable, and celebrate economic diversification and innovation across the district.
QLDC had the fastest growing economy in the country before covid and has again today – with tech and tech-dependent growth outstripping the rest.
There is strong consensus locally that a return to the trend of ever-increasing mass tourism must be avoided, although the government has a different agenda,
We need to build on the already rapid growth of new technology and remote working in the district.
Encourage the creative and visual arts industries. Look beyond the tourism focus of the past to a broad cultural, social, environmental, and economic knowledge centre of excellence across the district.
Enable increased local production of food for local consumption.
Airport Control
Bring Queenstown Airport Corporation more in line with the desires and the well-being of our communities.
We need to prevent expansion of Queenstown Airport’s air noise boundaries. While we support the development of quieter, less polluting, and more regular services to both Queenstown and Wanaka airports.
Shift airport planning to more realistic local lower-growth objectives.
Integrate airport planning into more effective transport planning and network development.
Better Transport Now
LEAD INNOVATIVE, EFFICIENT AND SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT
We need to continue to develop public and active transport in the district and and better connect with neighbouring districts.
Provide more positive, collaborative leadership with our partner agencies, Otago Regional Council and Waka Kotahi/NZ Transport Agency.
We have to bring forward plans for sustainable rapid public transport on main roads connecting larger Wakatipu and Wānaka communities.
We need to have an open mind to innovative non-road based solutions, without getting locked into tourism-focused transport that only has residential transport as an afterthought.
While we better connect smaller communities to main centres and rapid transport with small, regular, energy efficient buses.
Developing Resilience
SWITCH ON ENERGY RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Encourage diversified local energy generation and storage.
Future-proof our communities, improve our resilience, and meaningfully reduce our environmental impact.
Partner with providers to install solar panels and battery backup in all public buildings in sunny locations.
Set an example and save ratepayers money by shifting all council facilities to solar energy case studies.
Encourage residents and businesses to build renewable electricity resilience into their homes and commercial operations.
My family live in a fully off-grid home, so I can speak from experience on this.
Reset Lakeview
REVISIT AND RESET THE LAKEVIEW TAUMATA DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
The new council has to immediately establish proper Lakeview project governance and take back the decision-making delegation from the CEO>
Ensure that potential community benefits of this pivotal development project are fully realised and that risks are better identified and managed appropriately and openly.
Renegotiate the development agreement to ensure intended community wellbeing outcomes are guaranteed and risk is exclusively held by ratepayers.
Review Priorities
COMPREHENSIVELY REVIEW SPENDING PRIORITIES
Fully review the growth, planning, and funding assumptions in the council’s long-term plans.
Enable the council and the communities of the district to begin to live more within our means in the difficult years ahead.
Ensure future infrastructure and development planning is based on realistic, sustainable projections, while better meeting community needs and protecting the environment.
Manage Debt
GET QLDC OUT OF ITS FINANCIAL CRISIS
The council essentially hit its borrowing limits in 2025, putting all future infrastructure investments at risk. With no capacity to fund any major emergency expenditure.
The council’s current budgeting relies on increasing significant growth in development and rates income, which is environmentally and socially unsustainable and unaffordable for the many existing residential and commercial ratepayers.
In reality, the QLDC budget has a growing hole with massive overspending on current capital projects, zero real progress with the government on the proposed visitor levy, pressure from the government for more development, and continuing pain of leaky building claims debt.
The new council will have to seriously reprioritise its spending away from its past focus on enabling development and tourism growth, to community wellbeing. This will require a more inclusive, open-minded approach to the opportunities identified in the Central Lakes Regional Deal proposal.
Manage Growth
PLAN FOR AND BUILD A MORE RESILIENT, AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
We need to make the most of the replacement of the RMA, with its intended more effective and efficient planning legislation, while ensuring that our communities have a real voice in the future of our district. That will not be easy in the current political context.
Enhance relationships with regional partners, including Kāi Tahu, our community associations, local business interests, and government agencies.
Plan for and realise a more sustainable future and set aside the previous ‘growth at any cost’ mindset.
The experiences of the Shotover Treatment Plant, the problems in the Upper Clutha, and the growing number of relatively isolated new communities, the reliance on large-scale, expensive, vulnerable sewage networks and treatment plants needs a serious rethink. Working with future developers and central government to develop more sustainable, smaller-scale, affordable, resilient solutions to these challenges has to be explored.
Education
CREATE A THRIVING TERTIARY EDUCATION SECTOR IN THE DISTRICT
Encourage a wider range of tertiary education options in the district to allow our young people to thrive and build careers here.
Attract a wider range of talent into the district, through partnerships with universities and polytechs.
We need to significantly improve relationships with the Ministry of Education to plan for and provide educational opportunities and facilities.
Better Health Services
ENHANCE HEALTH SERVICES IN AND FOR OUR COMMUNITIES
Although health services are not a local authority responsibility or cost, it is crucial that QLDC works to enable and support more effective health services to our communities.
The council needs to work more actively with local and regional health providers, public and private, and with central government to enable fully integrated public, private, community, primary and hospital-based health care system.
We should be actively encouraging health services education in the district, to build capability here.
Current maternity services in the Central Lakes region remain inadequate. We need to enable the development of a higher level of maternity care associated with Lakes District Hospital, while encouraging better services for all in the region.
Water Services Solutions
REFRAME THREE WATERS REFORM
Three Waters Reform is now a reality and its immediate local future will possibly be decided by the outgoing council. The need for change is clear. What that change should or will look like is much less clear.
What is glaringly obvious is that we can’t keep doing what we’ve done in the past.
Three Waters Reform and the shift of 60% of QLDC’s debt to a properly structured and locally controlled entity is an opportunity that we have to plan to make the most of it.
What we can’t do is use the additional potential credit capacity to go on a spending spree that would result in ratepayers being hit with higher combined water service charges as well as still high rates.
Affordable Housing
FAST-TRACK AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Make more council-owned land available to the community housing trust.
Ensure the Lakeview development delivers on the council’s intentions for affordable housing.
Encourage dynamic, thriving, mixed communities, close to workplaces and accessible to active and public transport.
Review the draft affordable housing “Inclusive Zoning” change to the district plan adopted on 12 August, to make sure those doing the right thing aren’t penalised.
Ensure that those parts of the economy that drive the increased need for workers’ accommodation contribute to affordable housing solutions.
Reduce the proportion of residential homes being used as visitor accommodation.
Reconnect
RECONNECT A DISCONNECTED QLDC
The new council needs to rapidly resolve the disconnected and inefficient spread of council functions and staff across Queenstown, and make them much more accessible to all of our communities.
We need to establish new, user-friendly, affordable, earthquake resilient, future-proofed facilities to best serve our communities outside of the old centre of Queenstown.
We have to separate the development of new council offices from the long-anticipated arts and community space “Te Manawa” on Stanley Street, Queenstown, to accelerate both.
Rebuild Trust
WIN BACK THE TRUST OF OUR COMMUNITIES
Build, maintain, and celebrate a new council and executive leadership culture that the community trusts.
Fully implement and closely monitor the council’s revised procurement policy.
Put an end to substantial pieces of work being contracted out by QLDC to close associates without proper process and oversight.
QLDC needs to win back the trust of our communities in all that it does.