Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Culture and Heritage

I must say I am a little surprised that Mrs Chadwick has not leapt to her feet, that the new star of the Labour Party, Jacinda Ardern, has not leapt to her feet, or that Grant Robertson is not in the Chamber to speak, because, believe it or not, Labour—

💬 Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson.

The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I know what the member is going to say.

💬 Hon Annette King: Perhaps the Minister might like to talk about his own portfolio, rather than denigrating other people.

The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): The member cannot refer to the absence of another member. I ask him to come back to what this debate is about.

I apologise. I was just, in passing, saying how disappointing it was that Labour has three spokespeople for this very important area, but no one has taken a call. But I am very happy to take a call, because our record in the arts is very good indeed.

Indeed, 2 years after Helen Clark skipped off to the United Nations, I am still finding there are huge amounts of big policy work and big expenditure work that need to be undertaken in the arts. Although it is a relatively small portfolio, it is actually an important portfolio. When one looks, for example, at heritage issues in Canterbury, one can see how important they are, but that is more for this financial year, so I am not going to talk about it, at all.

💬 Hon Steve Chadwick: I wonder when the Minister got to Christchurch to look at heritage—rather late!

I beg the member’s pardon?

💬 Hon Steve Chadwick: I wonder when the Minister got to see heritage in Christchurch.

This member has been to Christchurch on a number of occasions, working very closely—

💬 Hon Steve Chadwick: After questions in the House.

No; before questions in the House. The member’s question was—as the member’s questions so often are—utterly irrelevant in the circumstances.

Let me say something about some of the work we have been doing in the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, because it is very important. The first is the Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce that was working right through last year, in the relevant period. That task force has been looking very closely at how one can increase the pūtea for the arts and for heritage. When one thinks about the sorts of big issues that there are in Canterbury, I say to Mrs Chadwick, it will be very important that we engage private donors and corporate donors without cutting the budget. Indeed, right throughout the last election campaign, that was the clarion call from the Labour Party. Labour Party members went around the place complaining that funding for the arts would be cut. Well, look at what happened. The arts sector is in a very rosy position in dealing with the problems it faces, because of the dedication of people like the Minister of Finance and the support of the National Government.

I want to say something about the Film Commission. I simply observe how nice it was to see Peter Jackson on the front page of the Dominion Post yesterday. David Court of Australia and Peter Jackson undertook a very important review of the Film Commission, and they reported about the middle of last year. Criticisms had been made of the commission’s historical performance, but the new chair and the new chief executive, both of whom are outstanding people, have been addressing those particular concerns. It was very timely that we looked at the governance of the Film Commission. It was set up in 1978 by Allan Highet, an excellent former National Minister for the Arts, and so much that has happened in the film industry can be traced back to the establishment of the Film Commission. The Film Commission has reported, and I am very pleased to see that it is working on a number of recommendations. Indeed, they had been working on those recommendations even prior to the report.

Associated with the Film Commission is of course the Film Archive. In last year’s Budget, after years of neglect by Labour, we injected some additional funds into the Film Archive so that it could go about its very important work of restoring New Zealand’s film heritage, and I am very proud of that intervention.

Perhaps the proudest intervention in the whole area of film over the last period has been the intervention by Mr Brownlee and the Prime Minister to save The Hobbit. It was their actions that saved The Hobbit from the haters and the wreckers in the unions. A very good job was done. When we look at the front page of yesterday’s Dominion Post and see that wonderful New Zealander Peter Jackson on the first day of filming of The Hobbit, we can be very, very proud indeed. I stand by what we did. It was necessary, and without it the films would have gone offshore. [Interruption] The self-proclaimed MP for Weta Workshop, the member for Rongotai, would not have been able to stand up in this House with any pride whatsoever.

A huge amount of work is being done on the Historic Places Trust. Again, it has a very old statute. It needs a total review and I am pleased to see reforms there. I am pleased to see reforms with the Arts Council. So much that is good is being done.

Report noted.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry