REVEALED: Lobby group gets $1.2m in Creative NZ funding

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that The Arts Foundation Te Tumo Toi has received $1,180,300 of funding from Creative NZ since 2021/22.

This includes funding for lobbying/advocacy purposes, although The Arts Foundation was set up in order to raise private funds for the arts.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Spokesman, James Ross, said:

“Taxpayer-funded lobbying is rife with examples across the public sector. But it especially stings when taxpayers’ money is being given to a charity set up to seek private funding, just for it then to use the cash to lobby other bits of government."

“Time and again Creative NZ have been shown to be wasting taxpayers’ money on nonsense projects including – to name a few – Indigenised Hypno-Soundscapes, a ballet called the Sl*tcracker, and Covid dance videos. This is just the latest in a long string of questionable uses of taxpayers’ money.”

“Creative NZ should’ve been for the chop long ago, and the huge ecosystem of taxpayer-funded lobbyists needs to go with them.”