10 Comments

Well done on a solid performance ILT. Considering the massive disruption in the market, investment like Langlands is showing great confidence in the future of the South. I can't imagine Geoff is a mug either and he will have done the numbers and have the same confidence.

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It's called competition, ILT, something you're having to become familiar with.

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Time for ILT to play the game that works well for Distinction Hotels and that is to coordinate bus services as part of their overall strategy.

ILT could provide a free daily bus service to Invercargill from Queenstown Airport

Seems extravagant but the passengers will all eat drink and stay somewhere for at least one night

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For many years the trust has monopolised the food and accommodation sector in Invercargill making it unable to compete with other tourist regions do to poor options for the customers. The quality has been poor and smaller restaurants s etc have not been able to compete.

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Another good reason why the Trust should be sold off and the returns spread out to the community.

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That is about as short sighted as Knobbys plan to sell off the cities parks for developers to make millions from. The first year would be nice but once the profits started flowing out of the south the reality would be all the crying into our coffees would never see them return.

And in five years we would be seeing the community sports venues like the stadium and rugby park needing the council and ratepayers to prop them up.

You only get one chance with the family silver and as Rodger Douglas showed 40 odd years ago, selling it brings all sorts of consequences down the track.

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Phil it this was true then the rest of the New Zealand and 90% world which does not have Trusts like this are wrong. It is called capitalism as opposites to a socialism. The weak fail and reinvent themselves.

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I've been to the rest of the country. For our population no other region has the facilities and the support for sport, arts and culture etc that Invercargill and Southland has. I've seen work peers in other regions trying to fund major community initiatives green with envy that Southland has a community entity like the ILT. Those communities used to have community organisations like the ILT and now they rue the day they lost them. The opportunities talent in Southland get to reach their potential is unparalleled for our size. Southland punches well above its weight. I bank with SBS Bank too for the very reasons Phil T speaks too.

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Not sure I want to get into an ideological argument but would point to how many times the capitalists have gone to the government cap in hand when things haven't worked out looking for some form of handout.

The other point is lets compare the many facilities we have in our city of 50,000 people and compare that with other similar cities across NZ. .

I am not into the left versus right arguments as we live in a world where both are right to some degree. Education, roading, most infrastructure and many other things are basically built on social principles or providing services to the masses.

And while I am comfortably off and don't go without, I still think I want to live in a society where we look after everyone. And I don't think of anyone being weaker than me.

The best rugby coach I ever had once sat the team down told us in no uncertain terms that we would only ever be as good as the worst player in the team so rather than ridicule him, how about thinking of ways to help him.

I want to live in a city where the money I spend goes back into the community and am proud of the foresight of people before me who saw that. Thats why I bank at the SBS rather than one of the Aussie banks that drag the profits offshore.

And why I am proud to look up at the skyline when driving down Dee St and see a brand-new hotel built from money spent in the city and now invested in the city.

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Can you fill me in what the reason is?

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