Arts, culture and heritage policies – Election 2023

Elections are a time for our political parties to inspire us with their vision for Aotearoa and the policies that will bring that vision to life.  As the Regional Arts Network Aotearoa, we are particularly keen to see what policies our main parties are planning to nurture our arts, culture and creativity sector. 

In July, The Big Idea approached the major parties to ask their plans to reveal policy for the arts, culture and creativity sector – and what each party stands for. Labour and National at the time were not ready to release policy.  A subsequent article in The Post in early August saw similar responses, but with MP Damien Smith (ACT Arts, Culture and Heritage spokesperson) fronting up on ACT thinking for the sector, and Himiona Grace, media contact for Te Pati Māori advising that Te Pati is revising their 2021 Toi Māori arts policy.  

So where are we now? Just over a month away from the election, we have arts, culture and heritage policy from the Green Party. We look forward to seeing policy from ACT, Labour and National, and the updated manifesto from Te Pati Māori. 

We will add key points from each party’s policy and links to their policies as these become available.

ACT New Zealand

The ACT party Arts, Culture and Heritage spokesperson is list MP Damien Smith.  ACT’s website has an Arts Culture and Heritage section.  This features several media releases, with one arts-specific release which focuses on “The Savage Coloniser Book’ by Tusiata Avia, and the theatre production based on it. 

ACT did give a fulsome response to The Big Idea, which, while it did not include policy, did address what ACT stands for in arts, culture and heritage.   This includes a statement on the value of ‘the contribution that the arts bring to a rich and diverse New Zealand society’. ACT says that it would like to see ‘arts funding invest in more diverse range of art for all New Zealanders, including recognising a variety of Asian cultures and especially those living in disadvantaged communities or isolated locations.’  Some novel ideas for funding are mentioned including the redirection to local artists of Government funds ‘which currently fund large public sector payrolls for culture agencies and screen production grants for multinational corporations.’

Green Party of Aotearoa

We reached out to the arts and culture spokespeople of National, Labour, Act, Greens, and Te Pāti Māori with a range of questions from our community.

These are the responses we got to help shed light on the connections between our political parties and the arts, culture and creative ecosystem.

Green Party Arts Culture and Heritage spokesperson is Chlöe Swarbrick, MP for Auckland Central. The preamble to the Green Party Culture and Creativity policy says the Green Party ‘will ensure better working conditions, more certainty, and greater opportunities for Aotearoa’s artists and creatives…’ and notes ‘arts, culture, and creativity is vital for healthy, vibrant people and communities. Like other community infrastructure, the arts, culture, and creative sector needs proper support.”

The policy has seven points.

  • Ensure all publicly-funded projects pay at least the living wage to artists, and expand paid artist residencies including Whiria te Tangata.

  • Support and invest in repatriating taonga currently overseas, back to iwi, hapū, and whānau Māori.

  • Provide stable funding for cultural and creative organisations and events both nationally and regionally, including long-term funding commitments for significant creative initiatives such as Te Matatini and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

  • Ensure that there are a range of creative education and training opportunities to support and expand the local creative sector.

  • Fund alcohol-free venues, and replace arts funding from gambling revenue with stable, increased investment indexed to inflation.

  • Support increased funding for quality, non-commercial public media that nurtures and promotes our talent and creativity as a nation, reflecting the unique social and cultural diversity of Aotearoa.

  • Increase resourcing for student, community Māori, and Pasifika media and radio.

Labour Party

We reached out to the arts and culture spokespeople of National, Labour, Act, Greens, and Te Pāti Māori with a range of questions from our community.

These are the responses we got to help shed light on the connections between our political parties and the arts, culture and creative ecosystem.

Hon Carmel Sepuloni as Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage secured almost half a billion dollars funding to support the sector to survive the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic – hat tip to Carmel. Recent achievements include: the passing of the Resale Right for Visual Artists Bill; support for the restoration of Auckland’s historic St James Theatre; initiatives to help the screen sector to attract more domestic and international production; and an evaluation report on the economic impact of the Government’s COVID-19 funding for the arts and culture sector. The releases are available here.

Labour’s manifesto notes the importance of the arts, culture and heritage of Aotearoa, and says their priorities are more quality local content, supporting the next generation of artists, and securing the future of te reo Māori.  If re-elected, Labour says it will:

• Explore an Aotearoa Arts Strategy, bringing together the significant work under way in the arts and culture sector including toi Māori and Pacific arts.

• Build on the success of the Creative Careers pilot and New Zealand Music Commission internships funded through the Cultural Sector Capability Fund by investing in a permanent programme to support New Zealand artists to have sustainable and rewarding careers.

• Deliver the Erebus memorial and St James refurbishment.

• Continue to support our cultural entities Creative NZ, NZ Film Commission, NZ Symphony Orchestra, Royal NZ Ballet, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand Music Commission, Antarctic Heritage Trust and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, and regional cultural entities.

National Party

National’s Spokesperson for Arts, Culture and Heritage is Simon O’Connor. National has released a number of policies  – and we hope to see an Arts, Culture and Heritage policy released soon.  Simon’s media releases over the last couple of years include several that are arts and heritage-related including a release on The National Library’s deal with the Internet Archive, the Film Commission and the ‘They Are Us’ film production, and on Te Papa and the leatherback turtle funeral. The media releases are available here.

As with Labour, we are keen to see what is planned if National forms the next Government.

Te Pati Māori

Te Pati Māori in 2021 released their Toi Māori policy. While Te Pati has advised that their policy is being revised, the 2021 policy provides an insight into key issues from the perspective of Te Pati. 

The preface to the 2021 policy notes: ‘Currently, Toi Māori in all its forms; music, visual art, film and television, broadcasting and performing arts to name a few is valued so lowly in comparison to other non-indigenous art forms in this country, yet the promotion of Aotearoa is predominantly marketed by the works produced by our Māori creatives.” It is also noted that ‘access to funding and resource across the board in the Culture and Arts sector is inequitable for Māori.’

The policy initiatives proposed in 2021 for Toi Māori were:

  • Allocate $19m to Te Matatini

  • Allocate $10m to Community, Hapū and Iwi development of Kapahaka and its accompanying art forms.

  • Establish an independent Toi Māori entity worth $57m dedicated to the protection and projection of all Toi Māori. This entity will be funded directly by the government and will be based on a commissioning model.

  • Make the new Toi Māori entity a Statutory Body on the Lottery Grants Board by 2023 that receives equal funding to Creative NZ.

  • Establish a research fund worth $10m for the purpose of producing an evidence base for how Toi Māori contributes to oranga Māori, with the intention of Toi Māori being funded across all sectors equitably by 2023.

  • We look forward to seeing their updated policy.