Creative industries need support to prevent talent moving overseas, experts say

Friday, 14 May 2021

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New Zealand could lose talented creative industries workers to other countries if business don’t get greater support from central and local government, experts warn.

Sam Ramlu, co-founder of digital technology company Method, told the Auckland’s Future Now conference on Friday that New Zealand was “where our heart is”, but with tax incentives being offered in many other countries, it was hard to keep talent here.

Just last week the Australian government announced it would offer a 30 per cent refundable tax offset to gaming businesses that spend a minimum of $500,000 on qualifying Australian games.

A creative industries talk at the Auckland’s Future Now conference focused on support for the sector and building a community.

Ramlu explained the firm’s current project, a virtual reality (VR) time travel game called Wanderer, received a small amount of funding from the NZ Film Commission, but it had to spend around $200,000 from their own pocket in order to get a game demo up and running, in order to put that in front of investors.

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Ngahere Communities CEO Manawa Udy pushed for a by-Māori for-Māori approach in the South Auckland creative industries sector.

Now, with the project nearing completion, the company is looking at ways to keep the studio going.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the conference that the Government had to offer financial incentives in order to stay competitive in the international film space.

Companies will leave, Ramlu said, and so will talent.

“This is a sector that has grown immensely despite the lack of support … we need training, advocacy and funding”.

There had been a temptation to move to other countries with funding or tax incentives, but the company was holding out as it wanted to remain Auckland-based, she said.

Manawa Udy, Ngahere Communities CEO, said there was wasted potential in Auckland, specifically in South Auckland, which is a huge melting pot of untapped creativity in the digital space.

She said more needed to be done to bring through industry role models for Māori, so they could help generations below them, and so on.

That would then bring more opportunity to tell stories about Aotearoa on huge platforms such as Netflix, she said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in order to get international film companies to work in New Zealand there had to be incentives and, while some people may not like it, New Zealand had opted into that.

New Zealand also had the advantage of having thrived through the Covid-19 pandemic compared to other countries, she said, so the country was in a good place to be able to bring those companies in.

The second Auckland’s Future Now conference is exploring how the city can prosper with borders largely closed and what will happen when skilled workers leave, or have a better chance of arriving.

“We are dealing with a world wanting to open up, but it is going to be complex and uncertain, and difficult to forecast how that happens,” said Nick Hill, chief executive of the council’s culture and economic agency Auckland Unlimited.