Walker Holly: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Walker Holly: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 10 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2206. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
HOLLY WALKER (Green) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise to speak on the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill as the Green Party’s new spokesperson on arts culture and heritage. The Green Party supported this bill at the first reading because we were interested in hearing at the Government Administration Committee how it would impact on the arts community especially Maori and Pacific arts. I was not in Parliament for the first reading of this bill nor was I on the select committee when it considered this bill but I have read the  
Hansard 
 and I have acquainted myself with the select committee report. I have consulted with my colleagues and we have heard the concerns of some key stakeholders particularly Maori and Pasifika artists. So it is with some regret that we advise the House that after those processes the Green Party finds itself unable to on balance continue to support this bill.  
The Green Party will oppose the bill tonight at the second reading and will continue to oppose it at the Committee stage and the third reading. The primary reason that we have decided on balance to change our position on this bill is that we remain extremely concerned about the impact this bill will have on the Maori and Pacific arts communities in particular. As we have heard from other speakers this bill replaces the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 1994 and restructures the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa otherwise known as Creative New Zealand. At present Creative New Zealand administers the Arts Board it administers Te Waka Toi Maori Arts and the South Pacific Arts Committee—a Pacific nations arts board. This bill disestablishes Te Waka Toi it disestablishes the South Pacific Arts Committee and it streamlines the Arts Council into one 13-member board.  
I acknowledge that the bill would provide for four seats on the board for people who have at least a regard for or an understanding and knowledge of Te Ao Maori tikanga Maori and Maori arts. I also acknowledge it makes similar provisions for two seats for members with similar understanding and knowledge of Pasifika arts and culture. I appreciate the change that has been made by the select committee to strengthen the requirement for Pasifika cultural knowledge on those boards. The Green Party understands that there may be some opportunities for Maori and Pasifika arts communities associated with having those seats at the table—if you like at the top table—of the body making key decisions about arts funding in Aotearoa New Zealand. That was part of the reason for our initial support of this bill but we feel that those potential opportunities do not outweigh the potential damage of disestablishing those two bodies—Te Waka Toi and the South Pacific Arts Committee. Conversations with Maori artists and key stakeholders have revealed in our experience that there is a strong desire from Maori for an independent Maori Arts Council administered by Maori for Maori. We believe that it is consistent indeed with the Treaty of Waitangi and the partnership that that document creates for there to be an independent Maori Arts Council body. We are very concerned that the ability to replicate the level of community engagement that Te Waka Toi currently undertakes will not be carried over into the new so-called streamlined body.  
Similarly we believe that a stand-alone Pasifika Arts Board like the South Pacific Arts Council is important because of the diversity of Pacific cultures that are represented in New Zealand society today. We are a Pacific nation—afloat in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa as my colleague Catherine Delahunty said at the first reading of this bill. Some of the most exciting vibrant challenging art practice in New Zealand is coming from Pasifika artists musicians and writers. But the Pacific is a huge geographical area and culturally there is a rich diversity of Pacific peoples and cultures from many Pacific nations engaged in the arts in New Zealand. We are concerned that with the restriction to two seats on the council for Pasifika community representatives the diversity distinction and difference between those Pacific cultures will not be adequately represented in the new structure.  
It has been somewhat difficult to judge the impact of this bill from the submissions received at the select committee alone because there were not many. What we have heard from a previous speaker which is echoed in the feedback and the informal feedback that we have had is that actually there may be quite a high level of concern about this bill in the arts community from people who felt unwilling to make a submission at the select committee because they do not want to prejudice their future funding and their engagement with Creative New Zealand in the future. So I think it is very important to ensure—and it is incumbent on us as parliamentarians to have that in the back of our minds—that we are not railroading in here an unhelpful change that the sector in fact is not confident about. 
The arts sector is very important in New Zealand. We have a strong creative sector and with the right support the arts have the potential to become a significant non-agricultural export industry in New Zealand in fact. But that will not happen without sound leadership it will not happen without strong Government support and it will not happen without good strategic planning. That is why we were also disappointed to hear the Minister of Arts Culture and Heritage in his speech earlier dismiss strategic planning in the arts sector as red tape and a waste of time. That suggests to me a very dismissive attitude towards the arts in general and one that does not recognise its vital role in New Zealand’s culture and in our economy. Strategic planning we think is very important to enable the arts to continue to thrive. So we have a number of concerns about this bill and particularly about the disestablishment of Te Waka Toi and the South Pacific Arts Council. We feel that the richness and diversity of Maori and Pasifika arts communities will not be adequately represented in the new structure created by this bill. For that reason the Green Party will oppose this bill tonight and at future stages. Thank you.