Ministry for Culture and Heritage Annual Report 2008
Chief Executive
As the Ministry’s 2008 Annual Report is being prepared, my ten years at the organisation are coming to an end. I’ve been privileged during my time here to have worked with very talented people on very interesting matters – matters which have a big impact on the lives of New Zealanders.
It is only relatively recently, though, that the importance of cultural visibility and accessibility has started to receive the recognition it is due. There is a strong sense now of the role that culture plays in our well-being, whether at the national, community or individual level; and it has claimed a legitimate status as the fourth key area of policy, along with social, economic and environmental concerns. As the intrinsic value of culture has been accorded a higher status by government, so too the utilitarian benefits of cultural projects in fields as diverse as health, social policy and corrections are more highly valued. Government is concerned not just with the means of supporting culture, but with the ends – the ultimate national benefits that might be gained.
The content of this Annual Report indicates the contribution of the Ministry in this area, and the particular nature of our services. These are a little different from the passports or benefits that people might think of first when the term ‘government services’ is used. What we do might be better characterised as providing – or helping make it possible for others to provide – content-rich experiences which without government’s involvement would not be available.
The evidence is that we are doing this very successfully, in part because we have looked at new ways of doing things that increase access to our culture, and give people a better understanding of it. For example, our websites are delivering important information to New Zealanders and visitors: Te Ara had over 1.5 million unique visitors in the year to 31 March 2008 – compare this to the 33,000 copies of the ‘sell out’ 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. NZLive.com had 82,797 unique visitors in the single month of March. And on the single day of 10 April 2008 – Wahine Day – there were 5,517 unique visitors to NZHistory.net.nz, and they looked at 30,124 pages.
Elsewhere in the Ministry staff are involved in other activities supporting our culture and New Zealanders’ experience of it. In some cases, the organisation is directly responsible for this work: in the care and development of memorials, for instance; or in the undertaking of oral and written history projects which record key aspects of our past.
Our policy analysts assist government in the selection and development of the range of cultural interventions (this year’s programme included development work on resale royalty rights and audio-visual archiving); and our agency advisers work with the large number of Crown entities and independent organisations which receive public funding towards the achievement of government’s broader cultural objectives.
Here again, the cultural experiences our citizens can access as a result of government involvement are highly-regarded and popular. Te Papa has been the most visited museum in Australasia over the last five years. And 94% of New Zealanders watch TVNZ at least sometimes.
It is with some considerable pride, therefore, that I look at the achievements of the Ministry over the past year, and the nine years before that, and consider how effective it has been in supporting government’s relationship with the sector, and New Zealanders’ increased (and increasing) engagement with culture. Once again, I’d like to acknowledge publicly the staff of the Ministry – both those whose role is visible, and those who operate behind the scenes. All of them are expert and dedicated, and they all have my grateful thanks. I will observe with great interest the work of the Ministry in the future.
Background – Meeting Our Accountability Obligations
This report is one source of information and resources about the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and its performance. Key information about who we are and what we do is available on the Ministry’s web site (www.mch.govt.nz). Our Statement of Intent setting out future directions and priorities is also available on the site. We have kept the content of this printed Annual Report to a minimum. Further details, images and other information about the Ministry’s 2007/08 story are presented in a digital form at www.mch.govt.nz/about/year-in-review.html.
Section one covers the Ministry’s performance for the 2007/08 financial year. Section two covers the contribution of our performance in 2007/08 to progressing outcomes. Section six covers the Ministry’s performance in relation to the outputs produced and the agreed standards contained in the Ministry’s Output Plans for 2007/08.
Our strategic framework
The 2007 Statement of Intent contains the Ministry’s three intermediate outcomes that contribute to long-term outcomes sought by government from its support for culture and heritage. The Ministry’s own role in support of the government’s outcomes and priorities is to help make culture visible and accessible. The Ministry’s outcomes are supported by key initiatives and services that reflect the government’s priorities for the next decade: Economic transformation, Families - young and old, and National Identity. The outputs produced by the Ministry are delivered according to the standards contained in the Ministry’s output plans for Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Vote Sport and Recreation.
The Ministry achieves its outcomes through certain strategic initiatives and services. Strategic initiatives are projects that typically result in the production by the Ministry of specific cultural experiences, for example, the From Memory – war oral history programme. Strategic services cover the important ongoing work that has an impact across the Ministry and/or the wider cultural sector. These services provide the policy and agency monitoring foundation for the selection and implementation of initiatives by both the Ministry and the cultural agencies that government supports. As such the delivery of strategic services is generally best assessed through non-financial service performance measures covering quality, quantity and timeliness. Section one covers the Ministry’s performance for the 2007/08 financial year for both strategic initiatives and services.