Budget 2024: Funding to arts slashed

Friday, 31 May 2024

Team Angitū performs during Te Matatini in 2023. The kapa haka organisation received $48.7m in new funding over three years.

The Government has slashed funding to the arts by $42 million in its first Budget.

Most of the cuts come from a major reduction in funding to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage ‒ $36.7m over four years ‒ but other organisations which have had money taken away over the same period include the Film Commission (by $1.6m), the Symphony Orchestra ($1.4m), and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision ($2.4m).

The Government has, however, provided new funding to Te Matatini to the tune of $48.7m over three years. The Government said its funding for Te Matatini erased the “fiscal cliff” the kapa haka organisation found itself on, and gave it certainty to expand from a biennial, national festival to support kapa haka in the regions. But Greens co-leader Marama Davidson described it as a “small sugar hit” for Māori.

The New Zealand screen production rebate that’s administered by the Film Commission also receives $67.4m in new funding over two years.

The Government also scrapped arts programmes in schools. It stopped the arts coordinators and arts online service, saying it was no longer required because arts teachers had migrated to alternatives such as informal groups on social media platforms and Ministry of Education-funded networks of expertise.

Labour’s Rachel Boyack, the party’s arts spokesperson, said the Government was more focused on tax cuts for landlords than the arts.

It also got rid of the Creatives in Schools programme, saying it was intended to provide support only in response to Covid-19 and was no longer required.

Rachel Boyack, Labour’s arts spokesperson, said the arts were always easy pickings and first cab off the rank when it came to cuts.

“My view is that the arts are essential. They're essential for our wellbeing. And we need to consider arts in the same way that we consider sport. They're either side of the same coin … I'm really concerned to see cuts to a lot of organisations that provide artistic services and wellbeing to New Zealand,” Boyack said.

Boyack said the arts drove economic activity but she thought the Government had a narrow focus and was more concerned with giving tax cuts to landlords.

The NZ Symphony Orchestra has had its operating budget slashed by $363,000 a year.

Symphony Orchestra acting chief executive Kirsten Mason said the reduction in its funding equating to $363,000 per year wouldn’t impact its core role of performing concerts and engaging with communities across the country.

“The NZSO will still deliver a full season of concerts with top international and Kiwi artists, as well as a comprehensive national education programme. The reduction does mean that we are looking elsewhere for efficiencies in order to reduce costs,” Mason said.

Film Commission chief executive Annie Murray said it was great news for the screen industry that $67.4m over the next two years was given to the screen production rebate. While it was not yet funded beyond 2025, funding commitments to the rebate are only allocated in one to two year periods at a time.

Because of cuts to its own operating budget, the commission was proceeding with a restructure. It would also make changes to some of its available funding for the sector, Murray said.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision chief executive Honiana Love said the organisation had put a lot of effort into planning for and establishing cost savings since the Government first announced it would be expecting agencies to do the same with less.

The audiovisual archive would take a “more conservative approach to projects and initiatives” with its reduced budget, Love said.

Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith said in a difficult Budget, the Government had demonstrated its ongoing commitment to the arts.