Finlayson Christopher: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13676. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage): That was a very disappointing inaugural contribution from the new Labour arts spokesperson Jacinda Ardern. It makes me hope that one day the associate spokesperson Darien Fenton will be the Holy Spirit of this rather sad triumvirate because she is apparently the third person. But quite apart from the fact that Ms Ardern does not seem to realise that the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Royal New Zealand Ballet are actually not funded through the Arts Council that they are direct-line funded why personalise it on me? I think it is important when one is debating these sorts of things in the Committee stage to get away from personalities and focus on the words of the bill the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill.I say this to Ms Ardern because she obviously has a few problems with reading a bill. If we go to clause 11(2)(b) one sees the functions of any committee established as a committee of the Arts Council may do: “any other functions that the Arts Council delegates to the committee.”Grant Robertson: So that means funding?Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Indeed it could be. So take this hypothetical. Mr Robertson one must learn to listen as well as to ask questions. I am trying to answer your questions so please do me the courtesy of listening—for the first time in his life. What I would say is this: there could be a range of bodies that at the present time may be funded by Te Waka Toi—take for example TeMatatini as an organisation or there may be a range of project funding applications that come through twice a year when the Arts Council does its funding rounds. It could well be that the Arts Council determines that it will continue to fund the performing bodies the theatres TeMatatini or whatever—although TeMatatini is in fact direct-line funded I am using that simply as a hypothetical example—but may give to Te Waka Toi or the new body that follows it the responsibility of determining funding applications for project funding.So what we are trying to do in this legislation is not be unduly prescriptive but provide general powers particularly marrying them up with what is contained in the Crown Entities Act and thus enable the Arts Council to exercise its functions for the best purposes and in the interest of the arts. So that is really what it is about—not being too prescriptive. But certainly the answer to MsArdern’s question is yes of course any body established under clause 10(4) may be able to fund.The way that Labour is speaking tonight and to a lesser extent the other parties that have made contributions you would think there had been a tsunami of concerned submissions. But one should look to the commentary—Chris Auchinvole: How many were there Minister?Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I say to Mr Auchinvole as a result of that very incisive contribution from him that actually the Government Administration Committee received and considered 15 submissions from interested groups and individuals. And guess what? It heard three submissions. So after all the noise—after all the noise—what did Horace say? “The mountains labour and a ridiculous mouse is born.” That basically is what we have had from Labour tonight—all the noise in the world but a ridiculous mouse is born because there were only three submissions.