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Minister Paul Goldsmith at the National Summit on the Economic and Wellbeing Value of Live Performance in Aotearoa New Zealand Photo: Jack Young
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has released Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand.
It is a draft open for public consultation described as "action-oriented" outlining how the government could support the creative sector through till 2030.
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith, has said in the past he believes artists should be left to do “whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington”. But he also admits a strategy has long been called for and is of use.
Speaking to Culture 101’s Perlina Lau, Goldsmith said there have been requests for more clarity on strategic direction, given the government’s significant role in funding the arts and making it easier or harder for people to get on with things.
There are four 2030 targets.
Firstly, to increase New Zealand’s "soft power" (essentially, the familiarity of its brand).
Aotearoa is currently ranked 30th in the world and in recent years has been dropping. In 2023 we were 26th, 21st the year before and 16th in 2021. The goal is to be ranked in the top 25 nations.
Secondly, for the median income of creative professionals to closely match the median wage or salary income of the country. In 2023, it was $37,000 for creative professionals compared to the median wage or income of $61,800.
Thirdly, to increase the GDP contribution of the arts to $20 billion. It is currently approximately $16b.
And finally, for New Zealanders to engage more with arts, culture and heritage.
When it comes to soft power, Goldsmith told Culture 101 there were three areas identified to strengthen the sector.
Nurturing talent and making sure people are exposed to a broad range of arts, looking at how taxpayers’ money is spent and the regulatory context such as intellectual property (IP) law.
“We need to be, not casual, but purposeful in how we use that money or leverage that investment so we get philanthropy and commercial investment - and very much focus on audiences.”
In achieving the goal of higher incomes for creative professionals, Goldsmith said “people get higher incomes when they create more value and people are prepared to pay more for what they’re offering.”
He pointed to the challenge he saw every industry facing.
“You can choose to go to a concert or you can choose to stay home and watch Netflix.”
While there is an enormous amount of creativity and genius going into the product, the same needs to apply to marketing that product, he said.
“Like I say, it’s about drawing in philanthropic and commercial investment, and sponsorship to get more money flowing into the sector.
“The big growth areas are film, which is an important part of our export offering and we want to grow that. Music - likewise,” he said.
With another goal focused on higher levels of engagement with arts and culture, the strategy comes in the same year the Creative in Schools Programme is cancelled.
It ran from 2019 to 2024.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said he is prepared to see schools defer arts and music curriculum to raise achievement in maths and reading.
Could education and arts policies be at odds with each other?
“I don’t think that and it’s not a binary choice. The foundation of any education is being able to read, write and count and you can’t engage in many areas of the arts if you don’t have that foundation in place. They’re not mutually exclusive.”
In response to whether that creates a feeling that arts are a “nice to have” and better left as hobbies, Goldsmith said that is not the message of the strategy.
“It’s not one or the other. Obviously we have a big challenge in our education system.”
Poet Tusiata Avia Photo: Eleanor Adams / Frank Film
Culture 101 asked for the Minister's reaction to ACT Party’s repeated comments and tweets about poet Tusiata Avia.
In 2020, Avia published The Savage Coloniser Book - a book of poems with ranging topics including Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, colonisation and violence against women.
In 2023, Creative New Zealand granted $107,280 to a production company to stage The Savage Coloniser.
ACT Leader David Seymour, then in opposition said the Government was “funding hate with a show about murdering white people,” accusing the Government of giving “so much to racism” and said it should apologise.
In October, Avia won the Senior Pacific Artist Award and two days later, the ACT Party tweeted, “We’re not sure Creative NZ has picked up that this government isn’t keen on taxpayers’ money being spent on hateful and racist vitriol."
The tweet went on to list Avia’s awards before reading “the Government is moving into another budget cycle and will be looking to make spending cuts at low-value departments. Creative NZ is continuing to tempt fate.”
When asked for a response, Goldsmith said, “Obviously the ACT party can speak for themselves on their comments but my broad view of the arts is there’s always one element of the arts which is controversial - and leading to broad discussion and that’s absolutely appropriate in a free and open society and it’s the role of the arts. I’m never going to be critical in that sense.”
There’s no question there’s a political element to the poetry, he said.
“In terms of CNZ and NZ on Air funding… I suppose all we can ask is over time, when people look at funding decisions that they feel like there’s a reasonable balance there. Not in individual cases. And I think it’s a fair question to ask whether there’s a sense of balance there or not, over time.
“My general view is that people should be able to express a view and that’s all part of a raucous democracy that we have.”