First look at long-awaited national culture strategy

Monday, 4 November 2024

Paul Goldsmith, the arts minister, has put a draft version of the strategy out for consultation.

The Government has released a draft version of its long-awaited creative sector strategy, which sets out a roadmap for growth and is out for public consultation till December.

Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith announced the strategy’s release on Monday morning at an event at Massey University in Wellington.

In a speech at the event, Goldsmith said he was always sceptical about the idea of a strategy as the last thing artists needed was directions or suggestions from government. However he said politicians had the power to help or hinder creatives through the decisions they made, and in that context, a strategy was a worthwhile thing.

The Light Cycles show as part of the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts at Wellington’s Botanic Garden earlier in 2024.

The strategy, which has been named Amplify, had been designed to increase New Zealanders’ engagement with culture and creativity, and to boost the sector’s contribution to GDP and export revenue.

It proposes four key targets.

Those are: having New Zealand ranked among the top 25 nations in the world for culture and heritage “soft power”; the median income for creatives more closely matching the median wage in New Zealand; GDP contribution from the sector increasing to at least $20 billion; and having more New Zealanders actively engage with local arts, culture and heritage.

The Government says it will reach those targets by maximising the impact of its roughly $450 million annual investment in the creative sectors; nurturing talent and supporting a pipeline to provide sustainable career opportunities; and reducing growth barriers by modernising and streamlining regulation.

The national Te Matatini kapa haka organisation was a big winner in 2024’s Budget when it came to the arts, receiving $48.7 million over three years.

In his speech Goldsmith said the Government was still dealing with a $13 billion deficit and the creative industries could be a way to grow the economy. It wanted to leverage its investment so that it also drew in philanthropic, local government and commercial funding to the creative industries.

Goldsmith said there was a myth that the Government’s focus on literacy and numeracy meant it was not interested in the arts in education. “That’s nonsense. Of course, having a core literacy is the foundation upon which everything builds … Getting the basics rights is fundamental.”

Goldsmith said the version of the strategy released on Monday was just a draft and he was open to ideas.

Labour’s Rachel Boyack said the strategy was disappointing as it set lofty goals without outlining investment or actions needed to make the goals achievable.

Labour’s Rachel Boyack says the strategy is disappointing and sets lofty goals without outlining corresponding investment or actions.

“The Government has said they want to develop a creative education work programme, yet they cut the successful Creatives in Schools programme in this year’s Budget and have cut arts education roles at the Ministry of Education,” Boyack said.

“The strategy needs to have a stronger focus on the wellbeing aspects of involvement in the arts. We know that people with intellectual and physical disabilities, older people and people with mental health needs greatly value the arts, yet the strategy only mentions this important area in the glossary,” she continued.

The sector has called for a strategy for many years to help better co-ordinate resource, and to address systemic issues like woeful pay rates for artists (in 2019 creatives in New Zealand earned an average $36,000 a year, well below the minimum wage), and inadequate creative infrastructure and education.

Funding for the arts has declined as a proportion of GDP over the last decade but the demand for money is increasing. Inflation was also significantly impacting production costs, sponsorship, philanthropy and audience numbers, according to research released this week.

In early 2023 in Australia Anthony Albanese’s Labor government ushered in a national cultural policy that outlined a plan to revive the sector in the wake of the pandemic which decimated the arts, again sparking calls for a New Zealand equivalent.

Consultation on Aotearoa’s draft strategy closes on December 15. It’s available to read on the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s website.

Next month is also the first month visual artists in New Zealand will begin receiving royalties when their work resells in auction houses and the like, with Copyright Licensing administering the scheme.