NZSA, PANZ, CLNZ & The Coalition for Books sent the Book Sector Manifesto: Election 23: Vote for Books & Reading out to all parties: both to the leaders and those candidates with ministerial assignment. We collate the responses to our specific book sector asks for you below:

DO YOU AGREE WITH THESE POLICIES TO SUPPORT NZ AOTEAROA STORYTELLING?

Book Sector Election 2023 

ACT PARTY RESPONSE:

1: A national strategy for books and reading in Aotearoa.

ACT would need to know what practical effect a strategy will have.

2: Invest in stories and sustainable careers for Māori writers.

Funding for all creative artists is available through Creative NZ. ACT is opposed to any Government service or funding delivered on the basis of ethnicity or identity.

3: Reform Public Lending Right compensation and funding.

ACT has no policy on this.

4: Ensure fair reward and creative rights.

ACT has no policy on the review of the Copyright Act 1994.

5: Realise the economic potential of NZ stories.

The ACT Party notes that funding is already available through NZ-on-Air or Creative NZ.

6: Buy local, read local.

A “Buy local, read local” is in the interests of the NZ book publishing and retail sector and is for that sector to determine.

Paul Goldstone | Director Policy and Research ACT Caucus Support Centre | Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160

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NATIONAL PARTY RESPONSE:

1: A national strategy for books and reading in Aotearoa

National’s focus will be on improving literacy skills for young children – including a requirement for all primary and intermediate schools to teach an hour a day or reading and an hour a day of writing. We will also make it a requirement for schools to teach using the proven ‘structured literacy’ approach. Equipping young people with stronger literacy skills will mean more people can discover the joy of reading.

2: Invest in stories and sustainable careers for Māori writers.

National will support all New Zealand writers as far as financial conditions allow, noting the valuable and unique contribution of Māori and Pasifika writers.

3: Reform Public Lending Right compensation and funding.

National will look at this issue in government as we are aware it has been a long-running concern.

4.: Ensure fair reward and creative rights.

National will continue to monitor our legislative and regulatory frameworks to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, noting emerging challenges like Artificial Intelligence.

5: Realise the economic potential of NZ stories.

National’s focus will be on rebuilding the economy to make it work for all New Zealanders. A strong economy will provide more opportunities to realise economic potential for a range of sectors, including for NZ stories.

6: Buy local, read local.

Supporting New Zealanders to have cultural and economic success is a key value of the National Party.

Sarah Boyle | Senior Advisor National Leader’s Office

 Parliament House | Parliament, Wellington 6160, New Zealand national.org.nz _____________________________________________________________________________________

LABOUR PARTY RESPONSE:

Election 23: Vote for Books & Reading – Labour response

1. A national strategy for books and reading in Aotearoa

Our stories and history are unique. It is right that we celebrate them, and do more to support our writers and wider book sector to share them. This Labour Government understands the contribution that our writers and broader cultural sector make to New Zealand.

Against the odds, through targeted measures like the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund, we supported the broader cultural sector through Covid-19 and guided it to be in better shape than before the pandemic. Despite 11,000 jobs forecast to be lost in the arts, we actually grew employment by 4.2 per cent and the number of cultural businesses by 8.2 per cent in the year to 2022. And the arts economy grew faster than the rest of the economy too, generating $12.9 billion in 2022 alone.

Covid-19 changed the way arts entities are funded in New Zealand. We recognise that there are lessons to be learnt from that experience to ensure we see better alignment in the sector, improved sustainable and consistent funding for entities, and a coordinated national direction for the arts, culture and heritage sector. In our next term, Labour will explore an Aotearoa Arts Strategy, bringing together the significant work under way in the arts and culture sector including toi Māori and Pacific arts.

We are closely watching the implementation of Revive, Australia’s new national cultural policy, to inform our work on a national arts strategy. Like in Australia, we expect an Aotearoa Arts Strategy to consider the literary arts within its scope – including ways to support readers, writers, and illustrators.

2. Invest in stories and creative careers for Māori writers

Māori culture, identity, and language is what makes New Zealand unique in the world. Labour is committed to securing the future of Te Reo Māori, we will continue to support Māori media to deliver a fuller range of innovative content that reflects Māori language, culture, stories and perspectives in te reo māori and in English.

A re-elected Labour government will explore ways to continue the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme, which supports iwi, hāpū, whānau and Māori communities to maintain and share their precious and vulnerable mātauranga and taonga.

Labour proudly delivered on our commitment to establish a public holiday, now firmly part of our national identity, to celebrate Matariki. Labour in government will continue to fund events and celebrations which help all New Zealanders enjoy Matariki, fostering connection, exploration of te ao Māori and respect for Matariki mātauranga.  Undoubtedly this support will include fuelling the broader toi Māori sector and the sharing of indigenous stories – in print, on stage and on screen.

3. Reform Public Lending Right compensation and funding

We support growing creative incomes in New Zealand, including those of our authors. We will support the Department of Internal Affairs to resume and conclude the review of the Public Lending Right in 2024, and to work with the sector in making the Public Lending Right better for authors.

4. Ensure fair reward and creative rights

The last significant review of the Copyright Act was completed more than a decade ago, and much has changed in that time. The digital environment has created new opportunities to disseminate and access works. For example, we have seen developments in artificial intelligence, data collection, virtual reality and 3-D printing.

Kiwis are increasingly using digital content over the internet, sharing platforms and streaming services. So our copyright regime must be robust enough and flexible enough to deal with the challenges of technological advances.

The Government has on-going work looking at how it should coordinate the Copyright Act review with the protection of mātauranga Māori and taonga works in response to the recommendations of the Waitangi Tribunal’s report Ko Aotearoa Tēnei: A Report into Claims Concerning New Zealand Law and Policy Affecting Māori Culture and Identity (the Wai 262 report).

5. Realise the economic potential of NZ stories

Labour’s focus has been on investing in a thriving, adaptive and enduring arts, culture and heritage sector, including initiatives that recognise the leading role that Māori, hapū and iwi play in bringing Māori culture to New Zealanders. We also put in significant investment into our sector to help withstand the immediate and sustained impacts of the pandemic.

Labour backs our creative industries – and we know that telling our stories is not only good for our wellbeing and social cohesion, but good for the economy too. For example, we have made improvements to the Screen Production Rebate as we know that New Zealand productions showcase both our cultural identity and natural landscape to the world, grow our skills base, attract investment, and boost the economy. We have made it easier for domestic productions to access the screen production rebate alongside other funding sources, and made changes to the 5% Uplift to incentivise more international productions to be made in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We have prioritised supporting the next generation of artists. Labour introduced the Creative Careers pilot, a partnership between the Ministry of Social Development and Manatū Taonga to help people in the creative sector develop non-creative skills and the knowledge required to build financial sustainability. Creative Careers has proven successful in fostering gainful employment in the creative sector, and to help people obtain more sustainable creative incomes.

We established the Toi Mai Workforce development council, which supports the broadcasting, screen, and arts sectors.  They work to ensure the vocational education system meets industry needs, give a stronger voice to Māori business and iwi development, and open more career pathways for our underserved communities, including Māori, Pacific peoples, tāngata whaikaha, LGBTQIA+ and wāhine.  Labour is committed to continuing to support the implementation of our far-reaching reform of vocational education that has set up our skills system for the 21st century.

Since entering government in 2017, we introduced the Creatives in Schools Programme.  At schools and kura, artists and creative practitioners have brought their specialist skills and knowledge to share with students, delivering high quality arts programmes.  This has helped creative workers upskill, obtain stable and gainful employment opportunities.  This Kaupapa has also helped students develop artistic and non-creative skills, and highlighted creative career opportunities.

The Covid-19 Cultural Recovery Programme Impacts Report 2021/22 shows that 95% of teachers reported better critical thinking skills in their participating students, better self-management skills, improved language ability and self-expression through Creatives in Schools.

Labour will continue to invest directly in our cultural entities like Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission, Nga Taonga / New Zealand Film Archive, and in other organisations across the arts. These include galleries, libraries, the archives and museums sector.

Labour believes a successful, flourishing arts and cultural sector contributes to our national identity. We also believe in a well-supported public media environment to ensure that New Zealand’s stories are told. Our continued investment will support the book sector to participate in local and global markets – and Labour’s proposed exploration of an Aotearoa Arts Strategy may result in learnings for maximising the book sector’s economic impact too.

6. Buy local, read local

We will continue to back the National Library in its efforts to grow New Zealanders literacy and love of reading, especially of our own stories.  The Communities of Readers projects, started after we entered government, has worked with four communities to achieve these aims. We’ll continue to support this kaupapa.

We also support our local authors and want more New Zealanders to reach for kiwi stories and books too.  We are supportive of a nationwide campaign to promote kiwi authors.

 Shahd El-Matary | Private Secretary Executive Support LABOUR PARTY Deputy Prime Minister

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GREEN PARTY RESPONSE:

Please see the Green Party’s response to the Book Sector key asks below. Our 2023 priorities for culture and creativity can be found here: https://www.greens.org.nz/culture_and_creativity_2023

Katie Mattera (she/her) | Correspondence and Policy Advisor

 Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Parliament House, 1 Museum Street, Wellington 6011

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TE PĀTI MĀORI RESPONSE:

Te Pāti Māori will support your requests in your manifesto. Reading and storytelling is a huge part of tikanga Māori, and it is extremely pivotal that for our stories, tikanga, values and morals to endure – that the arts sector be supported.

Keanu Flavell KAIARAHI TIOROWHITI | COMMUNICATIONS & MEDIA ADVISOR

OFFICE OF RAWIRI WAITITI, TE PĀTI MĀORI CO-LEADER, MEMA PAREMATA MŌ TE WAIARIKI                                                                                  Spokesperson for Te Tiriti | Justice | Police | Corrections | Whānau Ora | Housing | Māori Development

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2023 Collated responses Book Sector Manifesto