"The tatty reality behind Marie Hasler's absurd hype is that the new Super Ministry for Culture and Heritage will have a staff of 15 and a minister outside cabinet," Labour cultural affairs spokesperson Judith Tizard said today.

"The gush and the hyperbole can't hide these facts. Nor can they hide the fact that it has taken the government nine years to get even this far.

"It is yet more evidence of this government's contempt for the whole arts and culture area and for the people in it. Obviously the government thinks they are fools.

"The reforms are equally flawed from a governance perspective," Judith Tizard said.

"It is a classic example of what State Services Commissioner Michael Wintringham has referred to as restructuring for restructuring's sake.

"This is the work of a government which has run out of ideas and imagination and is trying to look busy in a forlorn attempt to justify its continuance in office.

"What is needed is a policy which draws in all aspects of New Zealand's national identity, arts and culture and which has some decent funding behind it," Judith Tizard said.

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