Michael Laws, deputy chair of the Otago Regional Council (ORC) has delivered a bold list of personal priorities that he hopes to include in the draft Annual Plan. Law's priorities focus largely around the environment, with hopes of cash injections for Wilding Pines, a regional team responsible for rabbit control in affected areas, and the eradication of lagarosiphon from our lakes and rivers. 

Alongside these he also mentions funding for the Cromwell Service Hub and implementation of a consumer survey to gauge effectiveness of ORC with stakeholders and public. Most of Law's plans effectively involve boosting funding for existing or stalled projects, so money is what he needs, and a fair amount too. 

Laws imagines the source of this funding to come from the OCR's stakeholder shares in the Port of Otago, saying: “It is long past time for the Port of Otago to pay a realistic dividend to the ORC to subsidise long-overdue environmental work in our region.” The port, the fifth-largest in the country, delivered a dividend of $8.45 million to OCR this annual period. This amount was previously described as a sustainable and predictable flow by the Port of Otago, although the figure was down from the $9 million dividend in 2018 despite a 12 percent increase in profits for the port. 

If successful Laws may be able to implement his vision, however Law's personal goals do not necessarily speak for what the council wants or intends to do.