Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

Tauranga is the fastest growing city in the country and has been for some time, with a growth rate of about 6.6 per cent and a population of over 137,000.

Although it is a city by population and growth, Tauranga is not considered a city by infrastructure. Look at the streets of Tauranga and you will see that we only have three high-rise buildings. And that is just one way of identifying a city.

We don't have a strong, robust transport network, we don't get our people around our city effectively and efficiently. We don't have the roads to cope with the traffic.

We've got issues coming into and going out of the city on state highways with huge bottlenecks and accidents happening regularly. We need to sort this out.

Cities are also required to have places for visitors to stay. Tauranga could do with a five-star hotel and a convention centre like most other cities have. But we also need to make sure that when people come to live here, they have somewhere to stay - an affordable home, with all the amenities, that is warm, safe and dry.

Amongst all of that, we have a museum project being pushed through. Personally, I don't see it as a necessity. As much as I would like to have a museum in our city one day, we need to consider some aspects of the build.

The first is the cost. It is estimated that the project will cost nearly $60 million of capital expenditure to complete. With an estimated $25 million coming by way of Tauranga ratepayers, this is an expensive item.

However, once the build is complete and with operational expenses of around $5 million per annum set to CPI, this cost will add up very quickly. With an expected 9.7 per cent rate increase forecast, Tauranga ratepayers will be expected to carry the burden of the operational costs indefinitely.

I think that is something we need to consider when looking at the benefit-cost ratio. If this is something that people really want, then we've got to understand what it's actually going to cost and where we are going to put it.

Is Cliff Road the best location? Or are we better to combine it with other civic amenities and merge it with the library and the council building to minimise costs going forward?

I think we need to look at roads, housing and making sure that this city can grow into a city that we can all be proud of with solid infrastructure, great roading and a robust public transport system.

As it stands, I don't personally believe that we can afford a museum in Tauranga right now. I am open to discussing this matter, so please don't hesitate to reach me at: clayton.mitchell@parliament.govt.nz or visit my YouTube channel at NZFirstreport. I look forward to hearing from you.