Writer, historian and now arts minister ‒ who is Paul Goldsmith?
Saturday, 16 December 2023
Eleven weeks ago, during the election campaign, National was ramping up its relentless crusade against Labour’s supposedly weak-on-crime rhetoric.
Amid a torrent of posts claiming the then-government was cosying up to the country’s gangs, Paul Goldsmith ‒ historian, former Auckland City councillor and MP of 12 years ‒ uploaded a video to his Instagram.
In it, the new minister of arts, culture and heritage; justice; state owned enterprises; and Treaty of Waitangi negotiations sits at a black grand piano, wearing a cerulean jacket and his signature clear framed glasses, and, reading from sheet music, plays works by leading Spanish composer and pianist Enrique Granados.
“The long and the short of it is, it’s one of my great passions in life,” Goldsmith said of the piano in an interview with The Post inside his new Beehive office. Goldsmith has, in fact, played the piano since school and is proficient in classical music, although he enjoys performing across a variety of genres.
Born in 1971 in Auckland’s Mt Eden to Lawrence, a maths teacher, and Margaret, a nurse, Goldsmith has, over the years, variously worked as a PR adviser, a historian for the Waitangi Tribunal and as a press secretary and speech writer for both National MPs and Labour’s Phil Goff.
At age 40, Goldsmith completed a master’s degree in history from the University of Auckland. Supervised by Dame Judith Binney, for his thesis he explored aspects of Christian missionary William Colenso’s life, examining the observations Colenso made of Māori while he lived in New Zealand.
He’s written or co-written 12 books, including several biographies on political and business figures like John Banks and, controversially, Don Brash; and separate histories on taxes and the Fletcher Building construction company.
When the new Government was deciding which MPs would get what portfolios, Goldsmith asked for the arts, saying it struck him as important for any government to have someone passionate about culture in a senior Cabinet role. “There'll be plenty that don’t have much time for this Government and fair enough, but at least I know that there’s somebody at the table who very much lives and breathes the sector and wants it to succeed.”
He’d established relationships with some of the creative sector in his previous role as commerce minister, and while he personally enjoys a broad range of art, he also sees an important role for the Government to champion and preserve culture as best as it can, and create conditions for it to flourish. He also recognises its significant economic contribution and potential; and believes great art is the result of great ideas, not great government plans.
Like every other industry, Goldsmith says the creative sector requires good institutions with effective leaders to help foster a pipeline of talent and drive the sector forward.
But he’s realistic about what National will be able to achieve with the arts in a governing term with so many other priorities ‒ a dedicated creative’s wage or higher screen rebates are both unlikely.
Pre-election, National released no arts-related policies. Goldsmith says there are no large sums of money waiting to be doled out. He has plenty of ideas, but wants to spend time getting to know the industry and testing his assumptions by listening to people. National wants to encourage arts philanthropy from the private sector, and for the industry to connect more with communities.
Audience behaviour has changed since Covid-19, Goldsmith says, and he hopes his party’s intent to improve law and order will help people feel more safe travelling to shows at night.
But the scope of the portfolio was far broader than any one area. Goldsmith says the arts are important as they relate to our national identity, heritage and culture. History is always contested and there’s never one version of events, he says, and National was keen to assert the principles of being able to debate things in the arts, as was guarded by living in a free and open society.
He wants to ensure cultural institutions are robust and well governed, and that agencies are monitored and achieving the best outcomes with the limited resources they have. Because money is tight, there is an additional burden to ensure money is spent wisely, and that people are accountable for outcomes. But those were often hard to define in the arts. After working in the book sector for nearly a decade, Goldsmith says he understands the artist’s grind.
“None of it was easy. But I found my niche and it was an entrepreneurial kind of thing. My heart is very much with the thousands of people who are trying to make a go of it. No government can find an audience … that’s the artist’s job.”
But, he says, the Government can make artists’ lives easier by relieving regulatory burden.
Art is everywhere and ever-evolving, he believes. Artists don’t see things from the same perspective, and if artists didn’t like the direction of the new Government that is fine by him; he’s not precious about it. Art is often politically motivated, and rightly so. Everyone should feel comfortable expressing themselves, he says.
Goldsmith describes himself as an eclectic and a magpie when asked about his taste in art. He’s a collector, and says writing about entrepreneur Alan Gibbs got him interested in modern sculpture. He laughs when asked about the theatre of the House. Politics is like show business but for ugly people, he says.
Of his four children, one still plays the piano. He feels it’s important that young people growing up have exposure to the arts, but he says it has to be intentional alongside sport. “I'll certainly be having conversations to ensure that we never lose sight [of art’s role in education] ‒ not that I think we are ‒ but I think it’s an important part of the mix.”
As well as piano Goldsmith played the double bass in a string group, and although he toured Japan doing so, he says he hated the instrument because it hurt his fingers.
He crossed into politics from books because Gibbs once asked him when he was going to stop living vicariously writing about others, and get out and do something himself. “I thought, well, I might as well get up off the fence.”
On calls for a national arts strategy, Goldsmith says he’s in two minds on the matter; he doesn’t think the sector lends itself to “some mastermind in Wellington” deciding its future. “I’m more of the ‘let a thousand flowers bloom wherever it goes’ and concentrate on how government can make that work. But I’ve got an open mind.”
My final question for Goldsmith was what art he would decorate his new office with. He says he only inherited hooks arranged in a hodgepodge fashion on the wall. He’d thrown up works from his old office on his first night there, including black and white photographs taken by a friend of his of the Waitākere Ranges, where Goldsmith has a holiday home; and separate framed images of the late Queen, former prime minister John Key, and his family.
“I’m hoping I’ll get some good art in here. There will be people coming in, and I want to showcase New Zealand as best I can.”