Grant Bisset: What’s wrong with the QLDC

Opinion

Over more than 30 years in Wānaka, Grant Bisset has been in the tourism and residential development game, an enthusiastic supporter of Warbirds Over Wānaka, and a ratepayer. Now he is adding his voice to those calling into question the performance of the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

The responsibility that lies with the Queenstown Lakes District is immense. The district is one of the most spectacular on the planet, and this makes it one of the most desirable to live. Balancing the demands of growth while protecting the intrinsic values of the area, managing the infrastructure demands and having an economically healthy balance to the place, where folks don’t have to live in cars, isn’t an easy task.

Our district council is a very large business - it has many departments, staff, assets, liabilities, contractors and projects that require oversight, management, a high level of discipline, pragmatism, and skill to execute.

Having good intent and an ability to get stuff done are two different things.

We are asking people to do complex tasks without the qualifications, skills or experience to do them. Then we are frustrated and disappointed with the results, or lack of them.

Often the elected representatives and staff have strong social or ideological agendas but lack the understanding to deliver on them. The result of those failures often leads to escalating debt which diminishes the ability to achieve on other projects so a spiral of inefficiency, failure and cost gets out of control.

One of the flaws of democracy is that the skill sets required to get elected and to deliver are different. That’s why we often don’t end up with effective governance.

One could argue that if our current model was operating correctly we would see the elected representatives determine a balanced social and business agenda that would be implemented by employed staff who are qualified, skilled and capable of executing the agenda in an efficient way that maximises the value of each dollar spent thereby enabling the most number of projects to be completed.

The reality we are seeing is somewhat different.

What we are seeing is ideological agendas that in many cases are not achievable or if they are not at reasonable cost, and furthermore they often produce an unintended consequence that is in conflict with the original objective.

While this could be excused because people find themselves out of their depth, what can’t be excused is not doing anything to address the problem once you recognise there is one.

There is mounting concern being expressed by people who ought to know that we are in serious and worsening trouble. The consequences of the trouble will be that we end up sacrificing things that are important to us. Our future and that of our descendants will not be as good as it could be. 

The balance and structure of our society is going to change as a result. We shouldn’t become a place where only the mega rich can achieve stuff because it has become so expensive and difficult to get anything done, and equally we shouldn’t discourage them from participating and contributing in our communities like anyone else.

This isn’t a 'crack' at the QLDC councillors and staff, it’s an observation that what we are doing isn’t working and that to continue doing the same thing while expecting a different result is madness.

My view is that we should be taking notice of our previous mayors and ex councillors who are calling for change. The ratepayers of the Upper Clutha need to support the call for statutory administration of the QLDC to steady the ship and get us on course for a future that isn’t out of control debt and failing projects.