REVEALED: Creative NZ's LGNZ Talkfest - Time To Scrap the Arts Bureaucracy

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that Creative New Zealand spent more than $21,958 sponsoring and attending Local Government New Zealand’s SuperLocal 2025 conference.

As a “Silver Sponsor” of the event, CNZ spent $15,000 (excl GST) to a panel titled The Role of Local Government in Building Communities, which focused on arts and cultural investment. Creative NZ also sent four staff and two Arts Council members, with travel, tickets, meals, and sector networking costs adding another $6,958.22.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said:

“Creative NZ is the latest agency to chuck money at the never-ending bureaucratic conference circuit. New Zealanders are choosing between food on the table or paying the rent, yet their dollars were spent to wine and dine at LGNZ’s event.”

"Creative NZ’s pointless spend-up just won’t end, and this is just one example. Between chucking taxpayers’ cash into the lobbying merry-go-round and channelling money overseas, where’s the oversight?”

“Creative NZ clearly has more money than sense, and its time to cut the funding. Kiwis don’t need Wellington telling them what to watch, and they certainly don’t need Creative NZ telling councillors how to tell them what to watch.”