Estimates Debate — Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage

The Government is seeking to spend $240 million in the coming year on arts, culture, and heritage. The Prime Minister made herself the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and the Associate Minister, who is now taking the chair, is the one who is usually poked out on a stick by the Minister herself to take the flack that comes with that portfolio. We have seen the funding go up and up every year. There was $17.2 million this year for Creative New Zealand. That is taxpayers’ money—up another million dollars on last year, and over a million dollars on the year before. It is just vote-buying from the politically correct, arty-farty, pompous, precious, self-appointed, elitist experts, who spent half a million dollars sending a pile of rubbish to the Venice Biennale and making us the laughing stock of the art world. As I said, Creative New Zealand received $17.2 million.

What did the Prime Minister say this time last year when the controversy first arose? The Prime Minister, the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, said she was not happy with that selection. She believed that the conditions and selection criteria had been breached, and that in the future it might affect her thinking. What did she say? “It might affect my thinking about future funding for Creative New Zealand.” Did she go back and order a review? Has she ordered a report? Are we any the wiser? No! We now see that another million dollars will go into Creative New Zealand.

Just a few minutes ago in question time another Minister stood up and boasted that the Government is spending $14 million on cancer prevention, but we are spending $17 million of taxpayers’ money on arts and culture and we are not allowed to know where it goes. Why are we not allowed to know where it goes? Because the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage allows her Creative New Zealand to get away with not forcing the recipient of that money to front up to taxpayers, and she allows Creative New Zealand to breach the selection criteria.

In 2003 when we sent a pile of Land Rovers to the Venice Biennale, the Minister was not amused at that, either. She made it known to Creative New Zealand that in future the recipient of that funding of half a million dollars must act in an ambassadorial role. So what did they send this year? They sent something called Fundamental Practice, which is a pile of fences and old computers, said to be “menacing wire fences, computers, Dalek-like moving sheds, images, and sound recordings”, for half a million dollars! And that is while 111 calls are abandoned by New Zealanders, and while people die on waiting lists.

I do not want to live in a country that does not have any arts. A person like me is considered a Philistine when I criticise the selection of that rubbish to go to the Venice Biennale—something I think is actually irrelevant. What is relevant is that it is half a million dollars of taxpayers’ money that we are spending while people are dying on waiting lists, and while schools have fund-raising to buy things like basic maths text books. To buy dictionaries, schools have to have sausage sizzles, and the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage tut-tuts about it. Of course, she could not tut-tut too loudly, because the person who received that money—et al, p mule, the et al collective, or whoever we are led to believe is the recipient of the money, was actually quoted in one of the reports as saying that the artist is the very person who is allowed to mislead the public. So, of course, that, translated to the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, goes all the way down to misleading the public about who actually painted a painting that was signed and handed over for an art auction.

That is the whole culture of this arts, culture and heritage portfolio—another million dollars of it. It is a typical example of the “we know best”, “we know what’s good for you”, politically correct attitude. That is why this Government will not be around to spend up large on piles of rubbish after 17 September.

I am not sure where that member has been, but there is a terrific celebration in relation to arts and culture in this country. On becoming the Government we injected $145 million into the arts through the Cultural Recovery Package, and placed the creative sector back on a secure financial footing after a decade of neglect under the previous National Government. In relation to Māori aspirations, the globalisation of Māori art in the last 5 to 6 years has been phenomenal. The Toi Iho trademark has been established. We are celebrating not just the fact that this country has the No. 1 economy in the OECD but also the fact that Māori cultural performances are being highly recognised by the representatives of hundreds of countries who are touring through the Aichi forum at the moment.

The Film Production Fund has been set up to boost the development of local films. Anyone who has been watching film development in this country over the last 5 or 6 years will surely give credence and credit to the Minister for pushing, shoving, and making sure that local films have a better platform in this country. The New Zealand film industry has attracted huge international interest and has certainly put this country on the international stage. Whether it is Two Cars, One Night, The Lord of the Rings, and whatever else—

💬 Hon Ken Shirley: Oh, it’s a tax regime.

That member knows that this Government has provided a great injection. New Zealand On Air’s budget has nearly doubled. It had been left floundering. Members will have seen the targeted T-shirts worn in every town and city in this country in relation to the music resurgence—music engineered, written, and produced by New Zealand artists. It is just phenomenal, again. The music industry is to develop a voluntary New Zealand music quota, and that is dead right.

💬 Brent Catchpole: Another Sound of Music coming up!

That is old hat. The reality of this Government’s performance in relation to this portfolio is that we have really shaken it up, and a lot of people are celebrating. The theatres and halls around this country that were dead and quiet are now ringing with a whole lot of activity, and that is no small thanks to a whole lot of effort from this Government. In relation to Māori and Pacific Island arts, the earning capacity—the increase in international recognition, in quality, and in sales that is going on—is huge. That has become a key, integral part of Māori moving forward.

I commend the fine performance by the Ministers in this portfolio.

I am delighted to take a call in this estimates examination, and I am delighted to work with the Prime Minister, the first Prime Minister in New Zealand’s history who has chosen to be the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. As she often says, in our small trading nation at the end of a globalising world, the debate about what is for sale and what is not for sale in this nation is the cultural debate. It is about what we value and who we are. It is about the attitudes we want our children to develop and take out into the world, as we all work together to make a prosperous, inclusive society. The arts are absolutely how we say who we are, and it is our culture—the debate about New Zealand identity and about how we make our living—that is being encouraged by this Government.

I am delighted to say that our statement of intent for the next 4 years includes some work around making sure that we get value for money in this area. I commend the Ministry for Culture and Heritage for the work it has done in a number of areas as we have expanded the Budget, but also as employment in and exports from this sector have expanded out of all proportion. These are the jobs and exports of the future. Every member of this House should understand that the creative industries—film, music, the visual arts, the design arts, and all of those areas—are how New Zealanders make their living, in many cases. Cultural tourism is a vital part of how we export New Zealand ideas and get New Zealand jobs. Our Cultural Diplomacy International Programme recognises that it is all very well to take fabulous New Zealand food and wine overseas, but that it is actually wearable art that brands New Zealand and gets people to come and spend their hard-earned dollars here, to make jobs for New Zealanders. I am delighted at the way this Government has worked through our major institutions. Te Papa has one of its most successful touring exhibitions, on The Lord of the Rings, travelling internationally, and has a number of major exhibitions going on, including a fabulous follow-up—on which it has worked with Toi Māori Aotearoa—to the Toi Māori exhibition that will go to San Francisco in the next couple of weeks. The work in Aichi at the World Exposition, and the whole area of the export of New Zealand artists’ work, is an important part of providing creative industry opportunities for all New Zealanders.

The films that are coming through will just amaze many New Zealanders. The $22 million this Government invested in 2000 not only produced Whale Rider and Perfect Strangers but will also bring us films like River Queen, which the ACT member who has just made her valedictory speech was abusing this time last year. It is an absolutely extraordinary film that will, I believe, make real waves and real opportunities for New Zealand film makers, including Vincent Ward. We will see The World’s Fastest Indian celebrate Invercargill—celebrate New Zealand ingenuity, New Zealand courage, New Zealand energy, and the New Zealand sense of humour. It is a fabulous film. We should thank expatriate New Zealanders like Roger Donaldson and Vincent Ward, who have come back to make movies that they can only make as New Zealanders and make here. Many, many other films are in production and post-production, and they will be let loose on the world to go out there and sell New Zealand.

This portfolio is about how we make our living and how we make jobs for the future. I am very proud to front up to taxpayers on every dollar that is spent in this portfolio. I want to point out again that the member who made her valedictory speech was not listening. Creative New Zealand’s council said that it would do a comprehensive report after three efforts at the Venice Biennale. I was in Brisbane recently, and what was on the front page of the major arts newspaper in Brisbane? It was New Zealand’s show at the Venice Biennale. It is getting international coverage. I may not like it, but the whole point is that we do not live in Soviet Russia, and politicians do not decide what art should be out there. I say that we should let the creative people do that, and I will do my work as the Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage. I believe that a prosperous, decent, well-educated, stimulating society that includes all New Zealanders is what we are aiming for, and that is what we are doing with this vote.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Communications Security and Intelligence agreed to.

Vote Ministerial Services agreed to.

Vote Prime Minister and Cabinet agreed to.

Vote Security Intelligence agreed to.

Vote Attorney-General