Arts, Culture and Heritage Policy Summary

Read the full Arts, Culture and Heritage policy

Key Principles

• Society should facilitate affordable access to the Arts.

• Public funding of the Arts must be transparent and sustainable.
• Historically and culturally significant places and buildings should be protected.
• The unique taonga of toi o Māori must be valued and protected.

Specific Policy Points

Communication and Co-ordination

• Promote improved communication and co-ordination between government ministries and stakeholders involved in the Arts.

• Support an overhaul of the arts infrastructure and funding provisions with a focus on increasing participation in community arts, arts education and the professional arts.

Tangata Whenua and the Arts

• Support and promote the right of Māori to protect both traditional and contemporary Māori art.

• Remain committed to a dedicated Māori Television broadcasting service.
• Support Iwi Radio throughout Aotearoa New Zealand to be an independent, secure and successful Māori broadcaster.

Media and the Arts

• Support strategies to ensure the production of quality Aotearoa New Zealand music, films and programmes.

• Extend economic incentives currently offered only to large overseas film productions to locally written and produced smaller budget films.

Education, Community and the Arts

• Recognise the value of community arts and community arts organisations through Creative Communities funding.

• Provide funding for Arts Education officers (from the Ministry of Education) to support the Arts Education strategy and ensure it’s accessibility and implementation.

Economic Development and the Arts

• Establish an arts and cultural promotion unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

• Make contributions to bona fide artist organisations tax deductible along the same lines as charity donations.
• Ensure that copyright of a commissioned work is retained by the artist, not the commissioner.
• Re-launch the Authors’ Fund under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
• Establish a Literature Commission to act as a champion for New Zealand writing and writers, examine issues such as copyright and digital rights and examine ways of raising remuneration for writers.

Protecting and Preserving our Heritage

• Support the creation of a National Policy Statement for heritage under the Resource Management Act.

• Support central and local government funding schemes for owners of heritage buildings.
• Establish a well resourced national funding scheme for the earthquake strengthening of heritage buildings.